Folios 250-251: J A Gordon, HMS Active, Sheerness. He responds to a request from...

Folios 250-251: J A Gordon, HMS Active, Sheerness. He responds to a request from the Admiralty that he explain who had promised the prisoners of war their liberty on arrival in England. He said that at the time the state of his ship's crew was such that he felt it unlikely they would be able to bring the ship home. He tried recruiting additional men without success. This rendered the assistance of the prisoners essential. They worked hard and diligently and while no direct promise of release was made, it was intimated and the Captain himself told them he would do all he could to get them discharged.

Folios 252-253: Enclosures to folios 250-251: Letter from the Admiralty office to Captain Gordon of HMS Active dated 10 June 1812. The letter refers to the promise made to italian and French prisoners that they would be released after navigating HMS Active and Pomone to England. The writer asks if he communicated with the Senior Officer at Malta on the subject because no such promise should have been made without it first having been considered, independently, as a necessity.