Folios 239-240: Robert Dudley Oliver, HMS Valiant, off the Lizard. He sailed from...

Folios 239-240: Robert Dudley Oliver, HMS Valiant, off the Lizard. He sailed from Jamaica on 31 January [1814] with 50 sail of convoy and from Havanna on 13 February [1814] with 56 sail and HMS Rhin, HMS Minerva and HMS Sappho. HMS Rhin parted company on 20 February [1814] to return to Barbadoes. Reports a gale on 1 March and signals given to the convoy. On 2 March the only ships of the convoy that could be collected were the Jane and Union although 8 sail were in sight. On 7 [March 1814] HMS Minerva joined them with 3 sail and parted company on the night of 9 in thick hazy weather. They continued with only the Union and the Star until the night of the 20 [March 1814] when there was an even more violent gale. They saw no more of the ships that had been with them although they laid to till the morning of 21 [March 1814]. He did everything he could to prevent the dispersal of the convoy and hopes they will escape capture. He fears some may suffer from being leaky as the ship Eliza and the brig Eliza foundered before they had been one week from Jamaica and the Lindsay was left leaky at Havanna. In all of these the pumps were rendered useless by the coffee choking them. The Dash brig made a distress signal on 1 March but it blew too hard to render her any assistance and the Union has been leaky all the voyage. He met a brig bound for Cork last evening and wrote to Admiral Sawyer to inform him of the dispersal of the convoy and he will write to Admiral Domett at Plymouth. After landing this letter with the Jamaica mail at Falmouth he proposes cruising for a few days between the LIzard and Scilly in hopes of meeting some of the missing ships. Encloses a list of the convoy [not rpesent] and his log since leaving Jamaica [ not present].