Made the Mattanzes at night; came to under the fort, in seven fathoms water and rode all night.
If you’re nautically-minded, you probably don’t have to wonder what that means. If not, then let’s just say it’s part of a journal that was kept by Captain John Hatter, the sailing master of the South Carolina sloop Commerce, on a secret mission in July and August of 1775. (A sloop is a type of sailing ship.)
The mission of the Commerce was to get gunpowder. The colonists were always short on gunpowder. It was always a problem — an “embarrassment”, as they would have said in those days. Washington, during the siege of Boston, wrote about how they couldn’t do much to the British because they didn’t have enough powder. The Continental Congress in Philadelphia talked about how to make or get more powder. It was always in short supply; after all, the colonies were mostly agricultural: they didn’t have a lot of factories, and they really weren’t ready for large-scale war.
Captain Clement Lempriere (don’t ask me how to correctly pronounce his name) was in overall command of the mission. The original plan was to go to the island of Nassau in the Bahamas (the island was called New Providence back then) and seize all the gunpowder they could. But they didn’t end up having to go that far. Captain Hatter recorded in his journal for August 7th:
At 6 A.M. got under way, and run down towards the bar of Augustine [St. Augustine, East Florida]; where, we saw a sail at anchor off the bar. We ran down to her, and hailed her; and found her to be the brigantine [another type of ship] Betsey, commanded by Captain Alvere Lofthouse, from London. We boarded her with our sloop, and upon strict search, found on board of her a large quantity of gun-powder; of which we took on hundred and eleven barrels, one half barrel, and thirty small kegs. Said vessel had on board of her, twelve soldiers from the shore, eight seamen, the captain, two mates, and steward, which was in number twenty-three men; and our number was twenty-one whites, and five blacks. Our situation was such on this occasion, that we thought it most prudent to bribe the men; which we did with one hundred pounds currency: and the captain accepted a draught [that is, a check] for one thousand pounds Sterling for the powder, drawn on Mr. John Edwards, of Charlestown. And at half past 11 A.M. after spiking up two pieces of cannon, that were mounted on board said brigantine, we re-embarked our men, and made sail…
It was a very successful mission — six or seven tons of gunpowder — more successful than some of the South Carolina leaders had expected; and they were plenty happy about it, judging by the way they wrote about it in their letters afterwards.
Notes
A “draught…drawn on Mr. John Edwards” would be more or less like a check to be paid by John Edwards. I’m not sure who Edwards was.
Evidently the Betsey was taking the gunpowder to the British garrison at St. Augustine. I can imagine that the British commander there was not too happy about what happened.
Source
Naval Documents of the American Revolution, vol. 1, pp. 1091-2.
Plan of the town and harbour of St. Augustine. [London? ?, 1762] Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/75693262/>.