Thomas Jefferson Papers

To Thomas Jefferson from Robert Smith, 7 December 1804

From Robert Smith

Navy Dep 7 Decr. 1804

Sir,

There are eight gun boats now building for the maintenance of which no appropriation has as yet been required—If they should be put in commission with the number of officers & men necessary in time of war, we shall require for their maintenance during the year, 1805, the following appropriations,

doll’s cts.
45,324
5665 For pay & subsistence of the officers & pay of the seamen 51528.
For provisions—we shall require no appropriation for the year 1805—Our general estimate for provisions for the year 1805. will be sufficient to cover this expense.
250 For medicine & hospital stores 2000.
750 For contingt. account including repairs 6000.
1068 For pay of Marines 8544.
360 For clothing for marines 2880 
72 For contingent account m corps 576 
8165 D. each $71528.

If these eight gun boats should act in one division we shall only require for “pay & subsistence” the sum of 45324—because in that case there would be no occasion for a surgeon & a purser to each gun boat—one surgeon with 2 surgeon’s mates, & one Purser, with a steward for each gun boat, would be sufficient for the whole—The saving by this arrangement would be $6204 annually—which would reduce the whole sum required for the maintenance of these 8 gun boats from $71528, to $65324.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, sir, yr. mo ob. servt.

Rt Smith

RC (DLC); in a clerk’s hand, signed by Smith; notations by TJ in italics; at foot of text: “The President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received from the Navy Department on 8 Dec. and “gunboats” and so recorded in SJL. FC (Lb in DNA: RG 45, LSP).

gun boats: in the fall of 1804, Gunboats Nos. 3-9 were under construction at major seaports along the coast. They were launched between November 1804 and April 1805 (Spencer C. Tucker, The Jeffersonian Gunboat Navy [Columbia, S.C., 1993], 182-4).

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