Folios 249-251: Samuel Butcher, HMS Antelope, Spithead. He writes that as ordered...

Folios 249-251: Samuel Butcher, HMS Antelope, Spithead. He writes that as ordered by Captain C. Upton of HMS Junon he left Brandy Poles in Newfoundland with a convoy as listed in the enclosure (not enclosed). They encounter a gale and he gives details of the rigging of the sails direction of the wind and so on. Once past Point Chat he tried to make sure the convoy were all together. He was alarmed that over the course of the day that they only managed to gather 12 ships from whom he could find no news of the other missing vessels.

Eventually they continued on their way, picking up another seven ships, making nineteen in all. They headed on towards the Gulf.

The master of the transport ship Juliana who came on board when they were off Miquelon told him that the strong currents had taken the rest of the convoy off course. Accordingly, Captain Butcher waited at the agreed rendezvous off Cape St Mary for them to catch up. Two more joined him. However, the wind had changed direction with a heavy swell when the his ship struck something violently.

The water was deep at that point and Captain Butcher could only surmise they had struck a piece of ice or a wreck. The Captain thought the damage to the ship was slight but she began to take in water. The gale increased in intensity and it became foggy. He knew there were strong currents in Schlarge's Bay and in the circumstances though it unwise to risk the ship sailing onto The Newfoundland Keys in the present conditions and so he beat near the shore and sent the appropriate signals to the convoy.

When the weather cleared he could not see the convoy at all and assumed that they had sailed onward and hoped he would catch up with them during the day. The weather worstened considerably in the night, however, and as he still had none of the convoy with him he hoped that they had all sailed onward towards their destination. He decided to return and to go to the dock to have the leak repaired and so sailed to Spithead rather than as originally ordered to the Downs.