1To Benjamin Franklin from Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg, 10 June[–2 July 1776] (Franklin Papers)
Dull, French Navy, pp. 6–9, 31–3, 36–7, 44–9, 52–3; Doniol,
The French navy was far from ready. The British, nevertheless, were sufficiently alarmed to have inaugurated a general press the previous October. Dull, French Navy, pp. 66–8; Gruber,
3The American Commissioners to the Committee of Secret Correspondence, 17[–22] January 1777 (Franklin Papers)
The preparations that were actually being made were less impressive; see Dull, French Navy, pp. 63–4.
4To Benjamin Franklin from the Chevalier de Brus, 6 May 1777 (Franklin Papers)
...when the British captured Martinique during the last war. On June 2 he writes again, virtually repeating himself, and says that he will come on the 4th for an answer. On June 1 Bruslé, a surgeon in the French navy, inquires from Paris whether Franklin is interested in a young lieutenant who was
5William Bingham to the American Commissioners, 28 November 1777[–4 December 1777] (Franklin Papers)
..., despite British objections, sailed from France in October. The departure of the Spanish “galleon” (the treasure fleet) was delayed, thereby eliminating any possibility that Spain would join the Franco-American alliance the following spring. Dull, French Navy, pp. 81, 94–5.
6Conrad-Alexandre Gérard to the American Commissioners, 5 December 1777 (Franklin Papers)
, pt. 1 (Philadelphia, 1982), pp. 29–32, and French Navy, pp. 83–101.
7Intelligence from Brest, 12 January 1778 (Franklin Papers)
, Feb. 1; Dull, French Navy, pp. 96 n, 102 n. had in fact sailed for America on Jan. 6 with Simeon Deane and his dispatches: Dull, French Navy, p. 93 n.
8To Benjamin Franklin from the Marquis d’Argenson, 24 January 1778 (Franklin Papers)
The Sieur de Pellevée is said to have lived near Caen and to have been a former auxiliary officer in the French navy. He specialized in Anglo-French trade and, according to the same source, had not only spent 20 years in England but had married the Bishop of Ely’s daughter: Louis-Pierre Manuel,
9To Benjamin Franklin from the Duchesse de Melfort, 26 February 1778 (Franklin Papers)
Lord Henry Benedict Drummond was a chevalier de St.-Louis and a captain in the French navy by the time he died in 1779:
10To Benjamin Franklin from Joseph-Etienne Bertier, 3 March 1778 (Franklin Papers)
...-du-Faou near Carhaix. News comes slowly to a small, isolated town, and he has just learned that Frenchmen are allowed to offer their services to America. He has been through eighteen campaigns as a surgeon in the French navy.