Note 447 — Chapter II
Reading edition
Dr. Peter Oliver wrote (Nov. 27) from Boston: "The pirates, or, as the rebels term them, the privateers, have taken a Cork vessel, Captain Robbins, of this town, with provisions, and carried her into Marblehead; and a number of wood vessels from the eastward are carried into the worthless town of Plymouth." P. O. Hutchinson, i. p. 571. Again, Dec. 7, he writes: "We have eight or ten pirate vessels out between the capes; and yet our men-of-war are chiefly in the harbor." Ibid., p. 581. Admiral Graves was as inactive as Gage, and, on Dec. 30, Admiral Shuldham arrived with orders to relieve him. Percy, writing from Boston of the new admiral, says: "We wanted a more active man than the last, for really the service suffered materially during his stay." (Percy Letters, in Boston Pub. Library.) Curwen records how matters at this time were regarded in London: "Their [the rebels'] activity and success is astonishing."