APPENDIX B 



LETTER FROM CAPTAIN ASHBY UTTING TO THE ADMIRALTY 

 REPORTING THE LOSS OF THE "LOO" 



Port Royall 



15th February, 1744. 



1 am extremely sorry this should be the messenger of such disagreeable news 

 as the loss of H.M.S. Loo. 



Will you please acquaint their Lordships that on the 4th day of February I 

 was cruising on the station 8 leagues from the Cape of Florida when about 8 in 

 the morning I saw a sail which I gave chase to and about noon spoke with her, 

 she being an English "Snow" ^ from Havannah and Missippy, but sailed by 

 Frenchmen and two Spaniards, one that had been lately taken from the English 

 and carried into Havannah. I liaving two men on board which was taken in 

 her and the master having no copy of the condemnation and nothing to show for 

 the sale but a common receipt. I seized her for the proprietors and was designed 

 to send her into Charlestown but at the same time an Irish gentleman, a mer- 

 chant that I had sent for on board, heaved a large packet overboard, which my 

 boat took up and when opened found it full of French and Spanish papers, I 

 then determined to see her in myself and also took her in tow. By the time I 

 made sail it was 6 in the evening at which time the Pan of Mattances - bore 

 S b E, the wind being SE. I steered NE b N till 12 at night by which time I 

 was well assured I was got to the northward of the double Head Shott,^ then 

 hauled up NE. Till this time I was on deck myself and when thought I was 

 passed all danger went and sat down in the cabin (as Doe assure you I did not 

 go to bed one night in six of the time I was cruising here). 



At a i past one in the morning, the officer of the watch sent down to let me 

 know he was in the middle of brakers and must Doe him the justice to say he 

 behaved like an exceedingly good officer for before I was got upon deck which 

 could not be ten moments, he had put the helm a Lee and the ship was at stays,* 

 just as we hauled the main top sail the ship struck abaft but she pay'd of? so 

 far as to haul the head sails,'* when the Captain " came and told me the tiller 



^ A brig having a small trysail mast set astern of the mainmast. The trysail 

 was a fore and aft sail with a gaff and, in some cases, a boom. 



2 A high, flat-topped hill lying inland from Matansas Bay on the northern coast 

 of Cuba, a point on which mariners take bearings in setting a course up the 

 Florida Straits (see fig. i). 



3 A group of keys lying in the eastern end of the Salt Key Bank which ex- 

 tends to the center of the southern end of the Florida Channel (New Bahama 

 Channel ) . 



■* A vessel is said to be " at stays" when heading into the wind in tacking. 

 ° Swung off from the wind so far that the head sails were caught across the 

 wind pushing the bow of the ship around toward the reef. 

 8 The sailing master. 



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