Manuscript letter on replacing sails damaged in the battle of Granada

Manuscript letter, 2pp., copy of correspondence from Parker on recto, response from officers on verso, all in the same secretarial hand, signed by Captain John Frodsham, John James and Joseph Priest, folio, mailing folds, folds reinforced, Carlisle Bay, Barbados, 3rd September 1779.

Parker, addressing “the Masters of his Majesty’s ships Elizabeth, Nonsuch, Yarmouth & Centurion”, orders a survey of the shrouds and sails on the storeship Tortoise after Captain Frodsham are “so much worn that they tendered unserviceable”.

The other side shows the results of the survey, and the need for the sails to be replaced. The letter is signed by Captain Frodsham, who made the complaint, and John James and Joseph Priest.

After fighting in the Battle of Grenada, John Frodsham was promoted to Commanding Officer under Vice-Admiral John Byron. In August he was given command of his majesty’s store ship Tortoise. Byron returned home after the British fleet failed in an attempt to relieve Grenada, which the French forces of the Comte D’Estaing had just captured, and Rear Admiral Hyde Parker was elevated to the position of commander in chief of the Leeward Islands.

Parker entered the navy at the age of 24 as an able seaman and sailed under Commodore Anson on his circumnavigation of the world, 1740-44. In 1762 when in command of the ‘Grafton’, 70 guns, in the East Indies, he captured a Spanish treasure ship. As flag officer at the Leeward Islands in 1779 he had considerable success in intercepting French storeships and privateers. In 1781 he commanded a squadron in the North Sea which intercepted a Dutch convoy of about equal force, which led to the fierce but indecisive Dogger Bank action. On his return Parker blamed Lord Sandwich for the small number and unseaworthiness of his ships. The King tried to pacify Parker and persuaded him to retain his command, to which he replied ‘Sire, you have need of younger men and newer ships’. He went as Commander-in-Chief to the East Indies in 1782 but his flagship, the ‘Cato’, 50 guns, disappeared after touching at Rio de Janeiro on the way out and her fate can only be conjectured.