On the snowship The Unity of the Commercie Compagnie, berthed at PlymouthEnglandPleijmouth, the 18th February 1763
Dear Sirs,
My last letter to your honors was sent on 24 November 1762 from Essequibo RiverGuyana Rio Essequebo via captain Jan Blaak. I hope your honors did receive it. This letter serves to announce the arrival of captain R. Robberts and captain C. Different, both of whom sailed from Middelburg to here and safely arrived in Essequebo eight to ten days before my departure to Demerara RiverGuyanaRio Demerary.
We have put out to sea on the 18th of December 1762 and passed the island Barbados on December 26th. On December 31st we had reached a north latitude of 17°3′ and a longitude of 316°42′, when we encountered the snow ship The Princess Carolina, sailing under the command of captain Claas Carsten Kuijper. This ship was coming from FranceBordeaux and going to St. Eustatius.
On January the 30th at a north latitude of 43°38′ and a longitude of 349°8′ we were suffering from a heavy storm. It began in the morning at the breaking of dawn, coming from the SSE to E by N, and gradually became more severe, so that we secured our shutters. We had been lying to the main staysail with rough seas for some time. During the dog watch one of our three pounder canons was knocked out of the gun carriage by the violence of the sea and fell overboard.
Furthermore, a lot of water reached the hold where the pumps are situated, so that we had to pump with two pumps the entire night. We decided to scud before the wind, but we could not get the ship in that position: however hard we tried, it was in vain. We then let down our main staysail and continued with completely reefed sails, floating with the heavy NNW by NW storm on God’s mercy. In the morning the wind was calming down, even though there were still occasional heavy rain- hail- and snow showers and lightning.
Since we passed the island of Barbados, we have not had any calm weather but continuous heavy winds. We therefore mostly sailed with set sails and double reefed topsails, until, thanks to God’s blessing, we finally reached The English Channel on the 13th of February.
This letter therefore further serves to announce our safe arrival in the harbor of Plymouth. The reason for entering this harbor is that in the night of the 14th and 15th of February, after having tacked without sails several times, we drifted towards lee shore, unable to push away from shore on either side. Due to a forward hauling wind and heavy storm we drifted strongly towards shore. At dawn we found ourselves between Plymouth and the lighthouse of the Eddystonenear the roadstead of Plymouth Eddystone. Together with my officers I concluded that it was necessary to enter the first harbor we would encounter; from the sky we could already see that a heavy storm was on its way.
Seven other ships entered the harbor with us. We fired four shots to call for a pilot, who brought me here in the Oostcoffer. Here, we also encountered the frigate The Spy, captained by J. Jonker, which came from St. Eustatius and is destined for Rotterdam. We also met captain Coenraad de Wolff. I have heard that this man is very unhappy with his sick crew; he has had a very long journey back home until he arrived here.
I hope, with the help of God’s blessing, to be able to continue our journey within 8 to 10 days so I can be home with the full moon.
I hope that you and your honorable family find yourselves in the same outstanding condition, as the one in which my officers and I find ourselves, which I would be pleased to learn.
I finish, with the honor of greeting you and your honorable family and recommending them to God’s holy protection.
Honorable sirs,
Your humble and obeying servant
Jan Menkenveld
Ps. Dear Sirs, many English ships arrive daily with the tidings that two English ships have already sunk. This morning two other ships have entered, among them a snow ship from Middelburg, which lost their main masts.
To the most honorable Sirs, Directors of the Commercie Compagnie of the city of
Middelburg in Zeeland
Addressed to [***] Herman and John Berens, London, 22nd of February 1763
