p189  XIV.

The Frigate Alliance and John Laurens

The finest ship in the Continental navy — the thirty‑six gun frigate Alliance — had been assigned to John Barry. Repair to Boston, the Board of Admiralty directed him, report to the Navy Board of the Eastern District, and be guided by it in his conduct. His orders were embraced in a single paragraph, which concluded with an injunction to prepare his new command for sea with the utmost dispatch. Briefer instructions never had been given a Continental captain entrusted with so important a commission. Behind the brevity lay urgency. Behind the urgency lay a fantastic tale.

Off Nantasket, on August 16, the Alliance had come to anchor, and an express had sped along the shore road through Hingham, Weymouth and so to Boston. To the Navy Board came startling intelligence. . . . Pierre Landais had sailed from France without orders. . . . On the passage, his actions had been tinged with streaks of insanity. . . . Officers, men and passengers — there were sixteen of the latter — had been bullied, damned and threatened. . . . Once a mutiny had been averted only through intercession of a few level-headed officers. . . . A second revolt had been quelled by a method unparalleled in naval history. . . . Officers and passengers had demanded Landais's abdication, and had selected the first lieutenant, James Degge, to command. . . . The deposed captain had retired to his cabin, and taken to his bed for a week. . . . Amid this chaos, Degge had brought the frigate to port.

These facts, or as many of them as could be assembled from the welter of conflicting stories coming up to Boston from Nantasket, had been incorporated by the Navy Board in a letter sent post-haste to the Board of Admiralty. The astounding account,  p190 reaching Philadelphia on September 5, had produced the most rapid action ever taken in the naval department. Barry's recall from leave of absence, and his appointment to succeed Landais had been accomplishments of the next few hours.

By evening, John Brown was drafting complete orders to the Navy Board. The disgrace to the flag must not be tolerated. The "dark business" should be explored, and the offenders punished. Lacking full details and at a distance, the Commissioners could not give explicit instructions, but directed an exhaustive court of inquiry into every transaction on board the Alliance, from the time Landais took command at L'Orient, until arrival at Nantasket. Meanwhile, the Frenchman should be suspended, the ringleaders in the mutiny confined, the reason for so many passengers investigated, and the frigate's stores preserved from pillage and destruction. Barry would arrive shortly at Boston to take command, and with him would be another Continental captain, Hoysted Hacker, assigned as first lieutenant to succeed Degge. The Navy Board could count upon their activity and prudence in outfitting the Alliance speedily.

"She must be got ready for Sea as soon as possible," continued Brown's flowing hand, "and if you cannot go on without assistance you must ask it of government in the most pressing terms. The generous exertions of our illustrious ally in our favour require on Our part equal Ardor to prepare to Co‑operate with her fleet and army."

Such insistence, that America's finest frigate be put promptly back into service, can be appreciated when we realize, that the Continental navy, in September, 1780, had dwindled to five ships. Of these, the frigates Trumbull and Deane, and the sloop-of‑war Saratoga were cruising off the Atlantic coast, and the frigate Confederacy was outfitting in Philadelphia. Two major disasters had brought the navy to this pass. The ill‑managed Penobscot expedition, in 1779, had seen the loss of the frigate Warren and the sloop Providence. With this fiasco, Dudley Saltonstall had been disgraced, thus moving John Barry from fourth to third position on the seniority list. In the capture of Charlestown, earlier in 1780, four more Continental vessels had been wiped from the register — the frigates Providence and Boston and the ships Ranger and Queen of France.  p191 Hacker, now named as first lieutenant of the Alliance, had been made prisoner there, paroled to Philadelphia, and exchanged a few days before his new appointment. It was not the first time this Continental captain had accepted a subordinate post. Without a ship, in the fall of 1779, he had volunteered in the fleet that had ended its existence at Charlestown.

When John Barry and Hoysted Hacker started for Boston, they had the company of Commissioner William Ellery. Being destitute of cash, the Admiralty Board had decided Ellery should go north, stopping off Rhode Island to raise funds for use in recruiting the Alliance's crew. When he reached Boston, the Navy Board should consult with him "on the requisites necessary" for outfitting the frigate. Astride sturdy steeds from the Continental stables, stuffed saddle-bags before them and small portmanteaus strapped behind, the trio rode out of Philadelphia on Sunday morning, September 10.

How the Board of Admiralty felt about the appointment of John Barry was expressed not long afterwards. James Nicholson, seeking to exercise his seniority rights, asked to be transferred from the smaller frigate Trumbull either to the Alliance at Boston, or the Confederacy at Philadelphia. In its report upon Nicholson's request, the Board stated it had selected Barry "as from his great activity and popularity with seamen they had reason to expect the service would be benefited thereby." In the light of subsequent accomplishments of the two captains, the Commissioners showed sagacity in their choice.

* * *

The court of inquiry into conditions on the Alliance had almost concluded when Barry and Hacker reached Boston, on September 19. James Warren, John Deshon and William Vernon, the full Navy Board, had not awaited word from Philadelphia to launch an investigation. Officers and passengers, particularly Arthur Lee, ex‑Commissioner to France, had testified as to Landais's erratic conduct. Lee, upon whose advice in L'Orient, the unfortunate captain had relied, had turned harshly against him, and represented him as insane. Sad commentary this upon human gratitude, for Landais obligingly had looked the other way when the estimable Arthur's extensive baggage had been smuggled on board for transportation to  p192 America. When Degge brought the Alliance up from Nantasket, on August 19, the Frenchman clung piteously to the ship, a lone figure as all hands forsook her. Throughout the period of the inquiry, he remained in his cabin, realizing at last the full measure of his misfortune.

With the arrival of Barry, bringing formal instructions, the Navy Board took action to dispossess the suspended captain. As its emissary, it selected Captain Matthew Parke, of the Alliance's marines. A most unfortunate choice that, as Parke and Landais had been at sword's points from the beginning of the voyage. The marine captain carried out his orders on September 22 — a disgraceful affair which concluded with three sergeants forcing the cabin door, overpowering the screaming, protesting captain, and dragging him ashore.

As the struggling Landais disappeared over the side, John Barry came aboard to find, as he had found in the case of the Raleigh two years before, a ship deserted of her crew, and pilfered of some of her stores. This time the looting had been chiefly cabin furniture and the culprit the deposed captain. Certainly the man must have been insane to have made off with cabin linen merely to retaliate for the theft of one of his own chests.

Even lying a forlorn, neglected object in the harbor, the Alliance was impressive. Barry could have re‑echoed the praise of her voiced some months before by Monsieur Thevenard, intendant of the French navy at L'Orient, and an authority upon vessels of war. She was, M. Thevenard had declared, "equal to any in Europe." His examination of her had convicted him, "there is not in the [French] King's Service, nor in the English navy a frigate more perfect and complete in materials or workman­ship." What a tribute to the abilities of William and John Hackett, the Salisbury, Massachusetts, ship-builders who had constructed her!

Her gun‑deck was •slightly more than 151 feet in length — •fifteen feet longer than the Raleigh's. She had a •thirty‑six foot beam — a foot wider than the largest of the original thirteen frigates — and a depth in hold of •twelve feet, six inches, as against, for example, the Raleigh's depth of •eleven feet, three inches. For armament, she showed a main battery of twenty-eight 12‑pounders, fourteen in a broadside. Her secondary battery  p193 comprised six 9‑pounders on the quarter-deck and two on the forecastle. She also carried six swivel guns. Only the Confederacy, of all the Continental frigates, was as heavily armed, and the latter ship lacked the skillful workman­ship which had gone into the Alliance. She was, by all odds, the best war vessel launched to that time from an American shipyard.

Yet this grand frigate was destined to long months of idleness due to just one reason — an exhausted public treasury. There was, as James Warren sadly admitted on October 12, no "Money to fix her out." Ellery arrived from Providence without the hoped‑for funds. Repeated requests to Philadelphia brought only admissions that the Continental coffers were empty. In the face of this seemingly insurmountable barrier, Barry persisted. He was determined to have a crew ready for the time when money would be found.

The Captain had an established reputation, a name for courage, honesty and fair-dealing, that was as well recognized in Boston as in Philadelphia. Consequently, by the end of November, the commissioned and warrant personnel was completed. With the approval of the Navy Board, he appointed as second lieutenant, Hezekiah Welch, an aged veteran of the navy who had last served on the Boston, and who had a large, dependent family. The third officer was Patrick Fletcher, who had been commissioned in the navy in 1776. Some of the officers, who had sailed previously in the Alliance, were willing to continue under her new captain; notably John Buckley, who had been her second lieutenant, but, "having an attachment to the service," was content to ship as sailing master. All the marine officers returned — Captain Parke and Lieutenants Thomas Elwood and James Warren — and a third lieutenant of marines was assigned in the person of Samuel Pritchard, of Boston. For the rest, there were Benjamin Balch, chaplain; Joseph Kendall, surgeon, and Samuel Cooper, purser. Nicholas E. Gardner, a navy lieutenant who sacrificed rank to see active service, headed a list of six midshipmen and nine lads acting in that rating. The sixth midshipman was John Kessler, Barry's former clerk on the Delaware. Young Kessler had stayed one voyage too long in the brigantine, and had been captured. Escaping and reaching Salem, he heard of Barry's presence in Boston in command of the Alliance. Penniless and wretchedly  p194 clad, he presented himself on November 28. The Captain gave him a hearty welcome and a midshipman's berth.

A crew rendezvous had been opened in October, but few enrolled where wages were promised but not paid. Privateering was a more lucrative employment, and Boston was a flourishing port for such ventures. Some few of the frigate's former hands rejoined. Others signed on included a number of British prisoners and some riffraff from the dens and alehouses along the wharfs. Recruiting efforts came to a standstill, on November 20, when Pierre Landais, severely censured by the court of inquiry, was arraigned before a court-martial on the Alliance.

* * *

Color­ful, indeed, the scene in the frigate's great cabin, when John Barry, as president, convened the first sitting of the Landais court-martial. Behind a long table athwart­ships, with the stern windows behind them, sat the seven officers before whom the Frenchman must answer for his conduct. Six were in brilliant naval full dress — the familiar Continental blue and red — and the seventh wore the equally resplendent green and white of the marine corps. Tall Barry sat in the center, flanked on one side by Hoysted Hacker and, on the other, by Samuel Nicholson, the latter on furlough from the frigate Deane and in Boston on private business. Beyond the three captains were the lieutenants, two on each side — Silas Devol, Patrick Fletcher and Nicholas E. Gardner, of the navy, and Samuel Pritchard, of the marines. While five of the seven were now assigned to the Alliance, none of them had served on her during the Landais regime.

The defendant in his Continental uniform, Thomas Dawes, Jr., a Boston attorney serving as judge advocate, and several clerks and orderlies were the other cabin occupants. Two marines in the passageway outside permitted none to enter save witnesses summoned to testify. Cold weather and short, late fall days called for both heat and illumination, so a fire burned cheerily in the stove, and lanthorns cast a bright light the length and breadth of the spacious cabin.

The charges were read and to each Landais pleaded "not guilty." They had narrowed to four serious indictments:

1. That he had sailed from France contrary to the orders of  p195 the Navy Board and without the consent of Dr. Franklin, under whose jurisdiction he had been placed.

2. That he had permitted private property to be shipped in the Alliance, contrary to resolves of Congress.

3. That he had abdicated his command in direct violation of rules and regulations of the navy.

4. That he had refused to deliver up his ship upon orders of the Navy Board.

Day after day the proceedings continued. Commissioned and warrant officers and passengers, one after the other, paraded into the cabin and told their stories. Many were venomous in their enmity toward the unfortunate captain. None were friendly. Incidents and events — some humorous, some piti­ful, some blasphemous — were related in language frequently unprintable.

Keenly alive to what was pertinent and what was not, John Barry kept the witnesses to the point. The Captain could laugh with the others at some of the ridiculous occurrences related — and there were many — but never did he forget courtesy and consideration to the lonely figure of Landais. A master­ful presiding officer, he handled the long-drawn‑out court-martial with acumen and sound common-sense. Often he voiced a question which clarified the story of a confused witness. Many times his delving showed the Frenchman in a little better light than a witness intended. He had that rare ability of cleaving through extraneous matter and arriving unerringly at the vital issues. Daily he demonstrated it in the shrewd way he kept witnesses and fellow court members to the main path.

At the end of the fourth week, on Friday, December 15, the judge advocate concluded his case. The evidence against Landais — more than a hundred closely written pages — had been presented in full. Barry ordered adjournment until Monday, when the defense could open. On Monday, Landais greeted the court with a written request for an extension of time, to the day after Christmas, to perfect his case. It was granted. On December 26, he asked further postponement for a week. Again the court agreed.

The last phase of the trial opened the day after New Year's of 1781, with Landais taking the stand in his own defense. For four days he testified, laboring to answer the evidence of each  p196 prosecution witness, and to interpret his every action favorably. Barry permitted him as much time as he needed, gently rebuking him when he diverged into irrelevant matters. Undoubtedly, the Captain felt nothing but pity for the erratic Frenchman, and with real humanity, allowed him broad latitude in efforts to justify his inexplicable conduct. The defense rested on the afternoon of Friday, January 6, and, behind closed doors, the court convened Saturday for deliberation and decision.

John Barry summed up the evidence for his colleagues that morning. It is a readable document, as it exists today in the cramped hand of the clerk who copied it into the court-martial proceedings. It demonstrates throughout the wisdom, moderation, analytical mind and judgment of its author. Here and there the spicy Irish wit of him appears, and we can imagine the chuckles of the others when he reached such points in his summation. Once or twice, he touched upon the sympathy he felt for the defendant and did it deftly. Space permits little more than Barry's conclusions on the specific charges.

Upon the first count; that Landais left France without permission:

"And I think, gentlemen, that the Captain came away as aforesaid."

Upon the second; the shipment of private goods in the Alliance:

"That he at least connived at it, which in effect, is permission, cannot be doubted."

Upon the third; abdication of command:

"Which is the most probable, that such a number of various characters should without motive conspire to ruin their commander, or that a Commander should have some weak part, some alloy in his constitution & by his behavior create enemies? Capt. Landais has been ill treated, but must he therefore ill treat the Continent?"

Upon the fourth; refusal to deliver up the Alliance:

"If Cap: Landais had recourse to the Navy Board, when destitute, why did he not repair to them when he first came to the harbor, at that time, as he suggests, not bless'd with a friend on board — why did he wait until he was almost forced, before he waited upon them, with the sad tale of his woes?'

 p197  How Captain Parke presented the Navy Board letter and ejected Landais from the frigate drew from Barry a pertinent observation. Verbatim, as recorded by the clerk, it reads:

When Barry ended, the judge advocate reviewed the most material evidence, and the court-martial delivered its verdict. It found Landais guilty on all four counts, and it sentenced him "to be broke and rendered incapable of serving in the American Navy for the future."

Seven weeks, including the postponements, had been consumed, and the court-martial was not yet done. On Monday, January 8, the trial of Lieutenant James Degge began. It concluded January 19, after testimony much like that offered against Landais. The result was similar, and the former senior lieutenant of the Alliance was ousted from the Continental navy. For more than two months, the business of getting the frigate to sea had been sadly impeded.

* * *

Colonel John Laurens, of South Carolina, dashing young officer of the Continental army and aid-de‑camp to Washington, rode into Boston, on January 25, 1781. With him were fiery Thomas Paine, famous Revolutionary pamphleteer, and suave Major William Jackson, another Carolinian. Straight to the office of the Navy Board the trio repaired, where Laurens startled its members. He was bound on a mission to France. Paine and Jackson comprised his retinue. The Board of Admiralty had assigned the Alliance to convey him abroad. Credentials confirmed his statements, from an attested copy of a congressional resolve to a letter of instructions to the Navy Board in John Brown's unmistakable handwriting.

James Warren and his colleagues sent for John Barry. Within the hour, the Captain and the sprightly army officer  p198 were greeting each other in hearty fashion. Their acquaintance­ship dated back to Valley Forge, and no man had greater admiration for Barry than John Laurens. Exploits, such as the barge campaign in the Delaware and the defense of the Raleigh, had evoked in the past warm eulogies from the colonel's pen. To him, Barry's command of the Alliance was guarantee of safe arrival in France.

High optimism suffered a shock when the Navy Board explained that two indispensables — men and money — were wanting to fit the frigate for sea. Barry, in confirmation, painted a verbal picture of the disappointments attending his efforts to sign on a crew. Of his men, too many were British prisoners. No doubt, he told of the sanguine riot on Minot's T wharf, on December 28, when the vicious element among the frigate's people became embroiled with seamen from two French frigates. A youth from the Alliance had been knifed to death in that brawl and several others badly wounded. The disgraceful affair was a vivid example of the troubles with which he contended.

Although disappointed, Laurens was not dismayed. He stressed the importance of his mission — it had been recommended to Congress by Washington. He emphasized how upon his success — in securing a loan, additional supplies and French naval superiority in the western Atlantic — would depend the outcome of the next season's campaign. Perhaps he showed them a letter he had received from the Commander-in‑Chief, a letter which declared that only immediate succor from abroad would enable the United States to weather the crisis. His insistence made an impression upon the Navy Board. Its members promised prompt and decisive exertions, and guaranteed sufficient money somehow would be procured.

From Barry came a suggestion. Why not ask the Massachusetts General Court to authorize impressments? Only in that way could he see possibility of securing American seamen to compensate for the excess of British prisoners in the crew. As he pointed out, the value of the ship and the business upon which she was to be employed were temptations that might lead to an uprising of the English hands. More loyal seamen were essential. Such an argument could not help but appeal to Laurens. He had no desire to join his own father, who had been  p199 captured at sea the previous fall, and was now languishing in the London Tower.

When the Navy Board agreed to ask the General Court to permit impressments, the colonel considered matters well in hand. It was now his intention, he explained, to journey to Newport for a final conference with Rochambeau, commanding the French army. Whereupon, he passed the whole problem on to the shoulders of the Board and left Boston that day, promising to be back in a week.

John Barry, escorting Paine and Jackson to the Alliance, felt that perhaps his trials and tribulations were nearing an end. He reckoned without the General Court. That body, on January 29, rejected the Navy Board's request. Private motives, it was hinted, "super­cededº those of general good" in this decision. Nor did much drum-beating and exhortation at the frigate's rendezvous add materially to enlistments. One forward step was taken. The Navy Board managed to raise money to enable the Captain to lay in supplies for the contemplated cruise.

When John Laurens returned, on February 8, he brought another passenger for the Alliance, the Viscount de Noailles, cousin of La­fayette and on furlough from the French army. Hearing the discouraging results of the previous week from Barry, the colonel unceremoniously left his French companion to shift for himself, and hot‑footed it to the Navy Board. His force superseded the un­success­ful efforts of Warren, Deshon and Vernon.

First, he turned to General Lincoln, commanding the Continental troops in Massachusetts. Absolute failure of all other resources, he pointed out, necessitated an application for authority to engage army recruits or invalid soldiers to fill up the deficiencies in the Alliance's crew. The only requisite was that the volunteers be somewhat qualified for marine service. Lincoln co‑operated, but army men were slow to transfer to the navy. Two days passed with less than a half-dozen enrollments, and Laurens tried additional methods. Would the merchants spare a few men each from their ships? The merchants would not. Would Governor Hancock grant him permission to enlist volunteers from the state guard at Castle William? Hancock, who, as President of the Continental Congress, had handed  p200 Barry his commission well nigh five years before, consented with reluctance. The Captain's recruiting officers, however, found the castle garrison turned deaf ears to cajolements.

Desperate by now, Laurens made another appeal to the General Court. Would a sum of specie be granted as a bonus to any man in the castle guard who would ship on the frigate for a cruise? His tremendous sincerity finally convinced the Massachusetts Fathers that the mission was vital to the welfare of the country. On February 6, the bonus was granted — one hundred pounds in silver.

"I shall embark today," Laurens wrote to Congress on February 7, "and expect Captain Barry will sail with the first fair wind." Hard money had brought response from twenty state soldiers, the limit set by the General Council for enlistments. The colonel admitted the Alliance was "barely in condition to go to sea."

John Barry echoed a similar sentiment. Nothing would have induced him to leave Boston with a ship so poorly manned, save the knowledge of "how essential it was to my Country that Colo Laurens should be landed in France with the greatest expedition."

On board the Alliance were 236 officers, men and boys — so inadequate a crew, as the Captain expressed it, that he felt her "not more than a match for a small Frigate." Nevertheless, he dropped down to Nantasket road, and waited for the wind to shift to a proper quarter. The shift came, on February 11, accompanied by a sudden gust that forced Barry to cut his cable to get underway. As the frigate stood to sea, he added another enlightening comment upon the caliber of his crew. There were, said he, not ten men, officers included, "that could steer her." It needed John Laurens' sublime faith in him to nerve the Captain to the prospects lying ahead.

* * *

With "no Seamen on board but disaffected ones, and but few of them," the Alliance pushed her nose eastward through the icy Atlantic. Danger of encountering hostile vessels was slight. His majesty's frigates and heavier ships kept to the shelter of Halifax and New York when winter howled. The New England coast in that season was no place to maintain a blockade.  p201 In fact, on February 16, when but five days out of Nantasket, the frigate entered ice fields, about ninety leagues south by west of Cape Race, and labored through them for twelve hours, sustaining "Considerable damage."

Peril to the Alliance lay not only in the elements, but in the murderous malcontents comprising most of the able seamen. Mutiny hatched below with British-born Quartermaster John Crawford as its prime mover. Men swore darkly on the Bible to join in an effort to take the frigate and put all on board to the sword, save one officer, who could choose between conducting them to a British port or death. A round robin, popular method for sealing such a compact, was signed by the mutineers, with space for the names of later recruits to the conspiracy. Opportunity was all for which they waited.

Not suspecting the disaffected would dare an uprising, Barry, nevertheless, took pains to forestall such a happening. The ex‑British tars were distributed equally among the watches. Officers were ever on the alert. Marines patrolled the decks day and night. Padlocks were clamped on the arms' chests. All precautions were observed, for the Captain, with no illusions about his motley crew, had a deep sense of the grave importance of this winter voyage. He recognized the mission of Colonel Laurens as a last, desperate bid for the wherewithal to continue the struggle. Failure might mean the end of the young republic, and John Barry was determined that his part — the safe delivery of the envoy extraordinary in France — should be fulfilled.

Whether the passengers, other than Laurens, were aware of the tension is doubtful. Theirs was a different world. A genial host, good victuals and much leisure to read, talk, write and game made the voyage one pleasant round of care-free days. Life moved smoothly for them save for one incident of which, alas, little is known. Paine, the pamphleteer, and the young Viscount de Noailles quarreled and settled the quarrel with a duel. Neither cause nor weapons used has been disclosed. All we know is that wounded honor was appeased without wounded body, and what might have been an international tragedy was averted.

Favorable winds wafted the Alliance steadily on her course. Early in March she approached the French coast, passing  p202 from the Atlantic to the Bay of Biscay. Occasionally a sail was seen, but Barry displayed no curiosity. His goal was too near for him to be diverted by prospects of prize taking. Then, on March 4, in latitude 47° 31′ north, and longitude 4° 27′ west, about 250 miles west of Belle Isle, a small schooner and a tall ship sailed into his path. Evasive answers to his hail aroused suspicion, and a shot from a forecastle gun brought to both vessels.

The schooner was a British privateer, the Alert, Francis Russell commander, out of Glasgow, mounting ten carriage guns and with a crew of thirty men; the ship, a Venetian merchantman, the Buona Compagnia, taken by the Alert a few hours before. In the hold of the privateer, "in irons and otherwise cruelly treated," they found the Venetian captain, Tomaso Lombardo, and his hands. As the merchantman was a neutral and did not carry contraband, her capture by the Alert was "contrary to the rights of Nations."

John Laurens saw "a happy opportunity of manifesting the determination of Congress to maintain the rights of neutral powers," and urged upon Barry the liberation of the Buona Compagnia. Having examined the Venetian's papers and decided "he Could not Make a prize of her," the Captain agreed. To Captain Lombardo, Barry and Laurens each presented a certificate of release. Profuse in his thanks, the Venetian captain resumed his voyage, his erstwhile captors being confined on the Alliance. Midshipman Gardner and a prize crew took charge of the Alert. By midnight, the frigate and her prize were underway upon a calm and smooth sea.⁠a

Nothing of moment transpired thereafter. Mutiny continued to smoulder between decks, but Barry's eternal vigilance gave it no opportunity to burst forth. The weather was generally favorable. On March 5, the Alliance indulged in a short but fruitless pursuit of a brigantine and a dogger, the chase not carrying them from their course. Next day, they spoke a Dutch ship and a French brig, both bound for Ostend. By the morning of March 7, Barry recorded, "the Land all plain in Sight about 4 or 5 Leags dist." That day and the next, they ran along the coast of Lower Brittany. A pilot came on board on the afternoon of March 8, but a fog arose, and they lay to with a stream anchor until dawn. Shortly after noon of March 8,  p203 they dropped anchor north of the Island of Groix, outside the harbor of L'Orient, and could see the Alert "in the offing."

John Barry escorted his passengers ashore — Laurens, Paine, Jackson and the Viscount de Noailles in the barge; their baggage in the pinnace. The passage from Nantasket had consumed but twenty‑six days, a remarkably fast run. More to the point, the Captain, in depositing John Laurens in France, had assured the negotiations which would prove the salvation of the United States.

---

Thayer's Note:

a The primary source, as reproduced in The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol. I (1900), p26:

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