NO. 2 LAST CRUISE OF II. M.S. "LOO — PETERSON 5 



rolls and other documents in the Public Record Office in London. All 

 these documents are Admiralty papers. The references are given in 

 the manner in which they are numbered in the collections of the Pub- 

 lic Record Office, and bear the prefix ADM or AD. 



On June 14, 1743, Thomas Corbett, Secretary of the Admiralty, sat 

 down in his London office and countersigned an order directing Capt. 

 Ashby Utting to prepare his ship, the frigate Loo* for a cruise to 

 North America : 



Having order'd His Majesty's ship under your command to be refitted at 

 Portsmouth, for a voyage to North America, cleaned, sheathed and graved,^ and 

 her provisions compleatcd to six months of all species, except beer, and of that 

 as much as she can conveniently stow, and stored accordingly ; you are hereby 

 required and directed, to repair with her into Portsmouth Harbour, and strictly 

 to observe the following instructions. 

 You are to give constant attendance. 



W: IC: GL:« 

 By T.C. 



Thus began the last cruise of the Loo, the story of which might have 

 been taken from a classic work of fiction. 



The Loo, a frigate of 40 to 44 guns, had seen long service in the 

 Royal Navy. She had been built during the expansion of the British 

 fleet incident to the War of the Spanish Succession. In this war 

 England was fighting to prevent the seating of a Bourbon ^ on the 

 throne of Spain — a scheme of Louis XIV to strengthen the position 

 of France in Europe. The Loo was to meet her end during another 

 war in which Spain and Great Britain were enemies, a war that began 

 as a result of the succession of Maria Teresa to the throne of Austria. 



^ Named for the old seaport town of Looe (also Loo), which lies on the rocky 

 coast of Cornwall and which has supplied sturdy sailors to the Royal Navy 

 since its beginning. 



^ The first Royal Navy vessel to be sheathed with lead was the Phoenix; this 

 was done in 1670. The practice had been followed in the Spanisli Navy since the 

 middle of the sixteenth century and in some cases by English merchant ships 

 (see Clowes, The Royal Navy, vol. 2, p. 240). Lead proved impractical, how- 

 ever, and the practice of sheathing with thin fir boards was followed until the 

 time of the American Revolution, when the British fleet was sheathed with 

 copper. The thin fir sheathing was backed with pitch and horsehair, which dis- 

 couraged worms from tunneling into the ship's planking. Graving was the proc- 

 ess of burning sea life from the bottom of a ship. 



<* Initials of the Lords of the Admiralty, "W" for Daniel, Earl of Winchelsea, 

 First Lord of the Admiralty, March 19, 1742, to December, 1744. "T.C." for 

 Thomas Corbett, Secretary of the Admiralty, 1742-1751. (Admiralty Out- 

 Letters, ADM 2, vol. 60, p. IS, Public Record Office.) 



^ The grandson of Louis XIV, who ruled as Philip V of Spain (1700-1746). 



