NO. 2 LAST CRUISE OF H.M.S. "lOO" — PETERSON 25 



bear away and take my fate through the Gulph of Florida ^^° for any 

 port of CaroHna even for St. Augustine (if I could fetch nowhere 

 else) rather than all be drowned which Doe assure you had very 

 little other prospect." ^^^ 



The fair weather continued and the overloaded sloop arrived in 

 Port Royal harbor (pi. 17) on the night of February 13. Utting and 

 the men were worn out from physical and mental strain, all realiz- 

 ing that their escape from capture or drowning was just short of 

 miraculous. 



Upon his arrival at Port Royal Utting began immediate steps to 

 assemble evidence to protect himself in the court martial that he had 

 to face for the loss of the Loo. His first step was to send one of his 

 pilots, William Lyford, to the town of Beaufort 6 miles north of Port 

 Royal to give a deposition before Robert Thorpe, justice of the peace. 

 In the deposition Lyford stated that in his opinion the course the Loo 

 had steered before she ran aground "was the best through the Gulph 

 (and is generally allowed so to be) and was then of the opinion that 

 such course would carry the said ship nearer the Bahama shore than 

 the Florida ; and this deponent further deposith and makes oath, that 

 he is well acquainted with the Gulph of Florida having used it these 

 thirty years past." ^^^ 



Eight days later, on February 21, Utting was in Charleston start- 

 ing proceedings to prove that the prize which he had taken was a legal 

 one. John Manley and Henry Spencer, the two seamen who had 

 recognized the prize as their former ship, appeared before James 

 Grome, judge of the Court of Vice Admiralty of the Province of 

 South Carolina, and swore under oath that the prize was the former 

 Billander Betty, and that while on a voyage from England to the Isle 

 of May and South Carolina, it had been captured off the coast of 

 South Carolina on April 9, 1743 — 



by a Spanish vcssell bound from the Havannah to St. Augustine witli about 

 sixty or more soldiers on board, that the said vessell not being able to make St. 

 Augustine return'd to the Havannah and in her passage was cast away, that the 

 Billander so taken as aforesaid was carried to the Havannah and was there 

 converted into a Snow and intended on a voyage to Campeachee but afterwards 

 these Deponents hear'd that she was bound for the Mississippi. 



That these Deponents came to this province with the Flag of France and 

 were press'd on Board his Majestys Ship the Loo under the command of Capt. 

 Ashby Utting, tliat on a cruise in the said ship they met with a Snow which 

 these Deponents very well knew to be the Billander Betty taken as aforesaid 



^10 The Gulf Stream would carry him northward. 



1^1 Utting's letter of February 15, 1744. 



1^2 Deposition accompanying Captain Utting's letter of February 15, 1744. 



