Wednesday 24th.
This morning the Courier lost herself in the fog but at about ten o clock we found her again. I will now give a list of the names of the officers and principal passengers on board the Sensible.
Captain Bidé de Chavagnes. A chevalier of the order of Saint Louis and captain of his most Christian Majesty’s frigate La Sensible.
Le Ch[evalie]r de Gois briand [Goësbriand]1 2’d in command
Mr. Riordan [Le Chevalier D’Arriardant]
Mr. Painker [Le Chevalier de Pincaire]
Mr. Denian
Mr. Du Breuil [Breville] auxiliary officers.
Mr. De La Guérivieres [Le Chevalier de Guerivierre]
Mr. De La Roche [la Roche de St. André].2 Midshipmen.
Mr. le major3
Coll. Fleury, a French Gentleman Coll. in the American army4
Mr. De Moléon
Mr. De Lancuville
Mr. Delacolombe5 other French Gentlemen in the american army
There are a Great Number of other french Gentlemen whose names I don’t know.
Mr. Allen6
Mr. Dana7
Mr. Thaxter
My Pappa
Sammy Cooper Johonnot
My Brother Charles and myself.
Sammy Cooper whom I have before spoke of is a very agreable young Gentleman and makes the passage much less tedious to me than it would be if he had not came with us.
At about 12 o clock we sounded and found bottom at thirty fathom deep. We fish’d a half an hour but caught nothing. Very foggy all day till about 6 o clock PM it clear’d up. 9 o clock. A fresh breeze from the west. Sailors say that when there is a bad wind drink a bowl of punch upon the Captson and the wind will come right. Mr. Dana Mr. Allen and Mr. Thaxter try’d the experiment and the wind changed and came fair; there’s super stition for you.
2. The editorial insertions for this and the names listed above are taken from JA’s less phonetically written and probably more correctly spelled listing of officers of La Sensible (, 2:395).
3. The ship’s medical officer, or surgeon major, M. Bergèrac (same, 2:395; entry for 15 June 1785, below).
4. François Louis Teissèdre de Fleury, a French volunteer in the American Revolution, who had distinguished himself in numerous early battles, for which he received a congressional medal (, 2:425–433).
5. Louis Saint Ange, Chevalier Morel de La Colombe, a French officer participating in the American Revolution (same, 1:324; La Colombe to JA, 21 June 1780, Adams Papers). His name appears to have been added to JQA’s listing at some later time.
6. Jeremiah Allen, a Boston merchant, whom JA described as “travelling with a View of establishing a private commerce in Spain as well as in France” (JA to the Governor of La Coruña, 18 Dec., LbC, Adams Papers).
7. Francis Dana, lawyer, member of the Massachusetts Council and of the Continental Congress, 1777–1778, accompanied JA as secretary to the peace commission. Two years later JQA served as Dana’s personal secretary and French interpreter for a year when Dana was appointed minister to Russia; Dana left there in 1783, frustrated and unrecognized by the government of Catherine the Great. Dana’s Journals, kept on this trip to Paris and his subsequent journey in 1781 to St. Petersburg and now at MHi, are an important supplement to JQA’s Diary (, 4:191; 15:204–217).