To James Madison from William Jones, [ca. 31 July 1814]
From William Jones
[ca. 31 July 1814]
Blocks and Iron work were under his entire direction with ample means of procuring.1 In Com. C. letter of the 8th July he mentions some little Iron work wanting for the Mohawk but does not intimate any detention on that account.2 The only cause of delay which then appeard arose from the necessity of changing the Officers and crews on account of Captain Smiths absence. This with some final arrangements would (as he said require a few days).
It would have been better to have assigned the real cause of delay.
RC (DLC). Undated; dated 15 Oct. 1814 in the Index to the James Madison Papers; conjectural date assigned here based on evidence in n. 1 and comparison with Jones to JM, 1 Aug. 1814.
1. Jones referred to a 25 July 1814 letter to him from Capt. Jacob Jones, written at the request of Capt. Isaac Chauncey, who although convalescing was still too sick to do so himself. Captain Jones reported that the U.S. squadron on Lake Ontario had not yet sailed owing to “the delay in obtaining blocks and iron work” but would be ready to go in two days, by which time Chauncey was expected to have “sufficiently recovered.” He added that intercepted letters from shipbuilders at Kingston indicated that the British would not be able to launch their new ship before September, if at all (DNA: RG 45, Captains’ Letters; printed in Dudley, Naval War of 1812, 3:553–54).
2. DNA: RG 45, Captains’ Letters.