Folios 281-286. Letter from Richard Heron to Sir Stanier Porten regarding reports...

Folios 281-286. Letter from Richard Heron to Sir Stanier Porten regarding reports of an American privateer mounting 18 guns being met with about three leagues to the North West of Loops Head, and of the Beresford cruiser having been chased yesterday evening off Bray Head by a ship believed to carry 22 guns. Dated at Dublin Castle. Enclosed: Folios 283-284: Letter from Captain Hewitt, Commander of the Beresford cruiser in the Revenue Service, dated 25 June 1778. Hewitt reports that the previous evening he was chased and fired at by what appeared to him to be a rebel privateer. He had seen her the day before outside of the Kish off Bray Head near a cutter he was concerned might be a smuggler. In the morning both vessels stood close together and when he made sail of the cutter, they both made signals and hoisted English colours; they showed no guns but were clearly full of men. Later that day, following the clearing of a thick fog, the suspected privateer bore down on him and fired. A chase ensued and she fired five shots at the Beresford, which fell very near it, before she abandoned the action. Folios 285-286: Letter from C Powell dated at Custom House, Limerick on 19 June 1778 reporting that on 13 June 1778 a fishing boat was brought to by a privateer mounting 18 guns about three leagues to the north-west of Loops Head, who bought all his fish and paid him for it. They informed the fisherman they were an American Privateer and sailed to the westward upon leaving him.