Editorial Note

While entering Boston Harbor on 10 August against a strong head wind and under the guidance of a local pilot, the “Magnifique” struck a submerged rock, partially capsized, and was wrecked beyond recovery. Hearing of the disaster, Robert Morris asked Congress on 3 September to appoint a committee to confer with him. In his dual role of agent of marine and superintendent of finance, he viewed the loss of the “Magnifique” as an opportunity to solve the problem of the “America,” to use her as a tangible expression of the gratitude of the United States to France, to atone for a misfortune which in considerable measure had been caused by a rash pilot, and to prepare the way for asking King Louis XVI to lend more money to the United States. Although the keel of the “America” had been laid at Portsmouth, N.H., in 1777 and John Paul Jones had been chosen by Congress on 26 June 1781 to be her commander, she was still not finished over a year later. Lacking funds “to fit, equip, and man” her, Morris was gratified to find that the committee appointed to confer with him agreed “unanimously” with his proposal (Samuel Eliot Morison, John Paul Jones: A Sailor’s Biography [Boston, 1959], pp. 315, 318–26; William E. O’Donnell, Chevalier de La Luzerne, p. 192, n. 37; Wharton, Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence description begins Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States (6 vols.; Washington, 1889). description ends , V, 678 and n.; JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, 1904–37). description ends , XX, 698; JM to Randolph, 10 September 1782).