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H.M.S Investigator - Sheerness
Feb 4 1801
Believing you, Sir Joseph, to be anxious, that the Investigator should be got ready as soon as possible, I take the liberty of stating some circumstances by which she is retarded.
Various things that yet require to be done in the shipwrights and joiners departments cannot be got on with, from the orders to the yard being expressive of particular ships which are to be forwarded. We are however promised to have men in a few days.
No master has yet joined the ship, or have the Navy Board given any intimation that one is appointed. I need not re-present to you, Sir Joseph, how necessary it is for this officer to be on board before anything is done at the holds.
No intelligence of the new establishment has yet arrived: I am consequently withheld from making applications for the particular warrant officers; but it is material to me that they should be on board before their stores are demanded; for the charge of them will otherwise rest upon me.
I am likewise yet in the dark as to the volunteers of the Reliance, and the others that are daily offering; whether the admiralty will think proper to grant them to me or not.
On the 27th last, I wrote to the Victualling Board, requesting they would order, that the casks containing the water and provisions for the ship should be new and of the best kind; and until it was clearly ascertained what the Investigator could stow, to have eighteen months salt, and twelve