Folios 228-229: Edward James Foote, HMS Sea-horse [Seahorse], Falmouth Harbour. Reports...

Folios 228-229: Edward James Foote, HMS Sea-horse [Seahorse], Falmouth Harbour. Reports that the previous day a boat from the Seahorse and HMS Maidstone went alongside the privateer Maria of Fowey, John (or Hercules) Jenkins, Master, as she came into the harbour to make enquiries of the West India Convoy. As they were told the ship had come from Lisbon and was under quarantine they did not go aboard. Today a Midshipman of the Maidstone went ashore in the Jolly Boat at St Mawes, where he was collared and insulted by one of the privateers and the boat's crew were told the Maria came not from Lisbon but from Plymouth. They were also told that if boats had boarded the vessel the previous day, they would have killed their officers who were already confined below. Last night about 30 men from the Maria went ashore, many of whom he suspects were deserters from King's ships, and when he sent a boat to the vessel today there was no one on board. They have managed to capture 10 or 11 of the privateers ashore. He has given the Regulating Captain full details of the vessel, and written to the commander of the Sea Fencibles for the Western District. PS He has just learned that the Master of the Maria and another man were aboard her this evening, and when the second man was taken aboard HMS Maidstone he acknowledged that he was a deserter from HMS Cambridge. Captain Ross Donnelly and his officers can give evidence against this man, whose name is James Welsh or Walsh.