Wednesday 6 April 1836

Dartmouth, April 6^th 1836

To /

G.F. Angas Esq^r

Sir

I have the pleasure to acknowledge receipt
of your letter, last evening, dated the 4^th, when I wrote you on
last saturday, it was late, & having but just come to an Anchor,
being at the time much fatigued, not having been in a bed for
nearly ten days, you will pardon my not writing you at the time
all particulars, which by your leave I will now endeavour to do –
…

The following day being Sunday, I requested all the Passengers
with some of the crew, to come on shore to church, to render thanks
for our safe delivery from the dangers we had escaped; when to my
great surprice one of them (Steven Session) has absconded & I have
not seen or heard of him since, he being completely terified to death
at the sea, & which I dont wonder at, I am sorry that he is gon, as
he was one of the best of the company’s servants on board, one of the
crew has also run away, the name of wood, but as he was a useless
fellow I have not made any serch for him, but has shipt another in
his place, the carpenter & the cook I am afraid they will not be sufiscantly
recovered to take to sea with me, therefor beg you will not Pay
the Carpenters note that I gave in London, and indeed it would be
a great benifet to the company to get clear of hime, for he is a
very useless and good for nothing fellow, & not by any means worth half
his Wages –; should you see M^r Simpson Father of my second mate, you
give very great hopes of the Prospects of his son, who I am happy to say
is a very praysworthy & promising young man, and in fact the best I
have in the Vessel, & I shall loose no oppertunity in putting him forward,
On Monday I had a survey, the result of which I hereby inclose
you a Copy, & am getting every thing repaird as fast as possible, & I expect
I shall be all ready by next monday, I with pleasure beg to inform you
that I have received every possible assistance & attention from M^r
Hingston of this place; and very Difrent from that received from
M^r Fox at Falmouth, who was only by chance shewn to me once
in passing, though I made it a rule to call at the Office every day we layd in that Port –
I was greatly surprised at meeting M^r Stephens in the street,
& he was eaqually surprised at meeting me, he informed me the unpleasant
situation they were placed in respecting the crew on board of the Duke
of York, I emidiately went with him & M^r Hingston on board, having
first got the Commander of the preventetive service to follow us, with
his boats crew armed, and after having calld the men Aft, questioning
them if they would get the Vessel underweigh, one of them being a
spokesman or ringleader, answared for the whol, & sayd they would not
without being put on Monthly Wages, finding it useless to contend with
them, I persuaded Captⁿ Morgan, to Make an example of him
in the first place, to the utmost extent of the law, to see how that
would work with the rest, & which I am happy to say had the desired
effect, for Captⁿ Morgan acordingly gave him in charge of the Naval
Officer, who very kindly offerd every assistance, & he was taken before
a Majistrate, I attended with M^r Stephens & the mate; where he
was sentenced to 21 days hard labour in Exceter Prison, two of the
crew having run away, the remainder very peasably went to their
duty, & to day (Wednesday) after having settled their afairs at Bricksham
I saw her leave the Bay with the wind NNW^t & fine weather,
but the wind is since changed to West, and no good prospect before
them, the glasses falling very much, M^r Stephens requested me to
write you of their sailing; he being very much fatigued, having from
from fatigue and angsiety not had a nights rest for some time, but
will write you before he get clear of the channel, if the weather
permits, he has wrote me a letter, the copy of which I have also
inclosed, should you aprove of those directions be so good as to
write me word, or any other advice you can favour me under
the present cercomstances, which shall be most punctualy be attended
to, as far as my humble abillities goes –
I beg to complain of the Person who supplyd the sugar &c
in the first place it is not sugar a tall, but apears to me to be
some rotten stuff taken out of the bottoms of Molasses cask, the
smell is past bearing, the loaf cheese is not worth the porterage,
nor is the quantety in either package I have yet oppend
of Porter wine or Brandy, and about half the Porter in small wine Bottles,
the Vinegar also very bad –; this complaint dont rest with me alone, but
M^r Stephens requested me particularly to write about it, informing you
that it was the same case with the Duke of York —
I also beg to complain of the muskets sent on board for the use
of the Vessel, not one in four are the locks of any use, & I beg to
asure you, that I have never had any of so bad a quallity to trade,
with the savages of the south sea Islands –
When you was absent, during my stay at Falmouth, I wrote
several times begging the favour to send me an Invoice of the Slops &
Tobacco, but have never received an answer –, I will feel greatly
obliged if you will be so kind as to order it to be sent, as I dont
know what to charge the men for them
Waiting you orders allow me most respectfully
to subscribe my self

Yours & the Company’s

Most Ob^t humb^l serv^t

George Martin