Folios 280-281: Sir Home Riggs Popham, HMS Stirling Castle, Spithead. Replying to...

Folios 280-281: Sir Home Riggs Popham, HMS Stirling Castle, Spithead.

Replying to a letter of 30 May from the Admiralty he says he is surprised and sorry to receive such a letter, with its enclosures, as he was convinced that during his voyage he had 'exerted his utmost powers in every particular' to advance the convoy entrusted to him, despite the privations he had suffered. Since arrival at Spithead he has been wholly taken up with attending courts martial, on which depend the lives and honour of officers but says he will as soon as it is possible enter into a full and clear explanation of his conduct, and feels sure they will be satisfied. He says their letter to Sir Samuel Hood is based on misconceptions. In the meantime he adds that with regard to the three ships named in their letter, they did not anchor at Madeira and passed the island without communication with him. They were not Brazil ships (as stated in the information given to their Lordships) the Ceres and Eliza were whalers, while the Urbano was bound for Mauritius, and he believes that they all arrived safely at their destinations.