NO. 2 LAST CRUISE OF II. M.S. LOO — rETERSON I9 



At the same time he ordered the Spy to take aboard the 30 seamen 

 from the Flamborough and then to cruise off Port Royal Bar and 

 join the Loo when she came out.^^ 



On December 22, Utting ordered Captain Ward of the ship Tartar, 

 which had arrived to relieve the Rye,^* to cruise on the Carolina and 

 Georgia coasts on the Rye's old station.^^ 



Finally, on December 30, work on the Loo having been completed 

 and the winds and tide favorable, the ship crossed the bar at Port 

 Royal and began her last cruise. In a final letter to the Admiralty 

 before the ship weighed anchor, Utting explained the long delay occa- 

 sioned by damage the Loo had received in the storm off Charleston 

 October 16-20, which he had underestimated in his letter to the Ad- 

 miralty dated November 12, 1743, at Port Royal Harbor. He re- 

 ported that it had taken him more than a month to get a new mast 

 cut, partially seasoned, and rigged ^^ and took occasion to point out 

 again to the Lords of the Admiralty the desirability of cutting several 

 trees and seasoning them as a reserve to be used for the manufacture 

 of masts or yards in the event of further damage to the ships under 

 his command. 



At the same time Utting reported that he had relieved his first 

 lieutenant, Mr. Bolitha, because of his injury, so that he could return 

 home to England, and had promoted his second lieutenant and third 

 lieutenant each one grade, then filling the vacancy left by the third 

 lieutenant by the appointment of one William Lloyd whom he de- 

 scribed as "a young gentm. well qualified for Preferement in his Maj's. 

 service." *^ 



After this last word from Utting, the Loo sailed to her station in 

 the Florida Straits and began cruising against Spanish shipping. 



The morning of Saturday, February 4, 1744, found her cruising in 

 the Straits off Havana. Around 8 o'clock in the morning a sail was 

 sighted, and the Loo gave chase. As the stranger was neared, two 

 seamen of the Loo, John Manley and Henry Spencer, who had been 

 in the group of prisoners exchanged from Havana, informed Utting 

 that they recognized the ship as the Billander Betty on which they had 

 served. They told Captain Utting that while on a voyage in the 



83 ADM I, vol. 2625, No. 427. 



^■* Captain Newman of the Rye had been directed to convoy merchant ships to 

 England from Charlestown in an order dated September 23, which was sent out 

 by the Tartar. (ADM 2, vol. 60, p. 270.) 



^^ ADM I, vol. 2625, No. 429. 



80 ADM I, vol. 2625, No. 424. 



^"^ ADM I, vol. 2625, No. 424. 



