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H M Ship Porpoise, Sydney Cove
Port Jackson New South Wales
Novr. 15th 1805
Sir,
I am sorry to be under the Necessity of writing you on so unpleasant an Affair as that of [indecipherable] some serious Complaints against Joseph Short Esquire 2d Captain of H M Ship under your Command for having at different times appropriated the Ships Stores to his own private Use. That he has lent Men from the Ship to private persons on Shore whereby the Service has materially suffered. The Articles of War were never but once read since the Ship was commissioned nor any Officer's Commissions ever read. The Boats Crews have been kept up at different times of the Night, either waiting for Captain Short or taking his Friends on Shore and I have every reason to suppose that if an Opportunity offered they would desert in consequence. Since the Order of the 4th September respecting Provisions he has had more than his Allowances. That he has at different times behaved to me in a cruel and oppressive Manner and made use of the most unofficerlike Language to me on the Quarter Deck when in the Execution of my Duty and endeavoured to depreciate me in the Opinion of the Officers and Ship's Company. And I beg leave to say that in consequence of the ill Usage I have received from Captain Short my peace of mind is broke and my health much injured. That I have sufficient Witnesses