[556] Journals of South Carolina House of Representatives, February 8, 1780. [557] Force, American Archives, 5th, II, Journals of South Carolina Navy Board, October 17, 1776. [558] Journals of South Carolina House of Representatives, September 10, 1779. The contract with Cochran was being dissolved. [559] Notes of Mr. A. S. Salley, Jr., Secretary of the Historical Commission of South Carolina. [560] Cooper, Statutes of South Carolina, IV, January 16, 1777. [561] Cooper, Statutes of South Carolina, IV, February 13, 1777, January 26, March 28, 1778. On February 13, 1777, a new act relating to the Court of Admiralty was passed. [562] Ibid., October 9, 1778. [563] In 1776 the following vessels were employed as merchantmen: schooners, “Polly,” “Peggy” and “Little Thomas;” the brigantine “Notre Dame,” and the sloop “Margaret.” [564] South Carolina Archives, Miscellaneous Records, A, 18, 19. [565] Files of South Carolina and American General Gazette, and Gazette of State of South Carolina. [566] Gazette of State of South Carolina, July 21, November 4, 1777. [567] Ibid., April 7, 1779. [568] Moultrie, Memoirs of American Revolution, I, 193-99; South Carolina and American General Gazette, April 23, May 28, June 4, 1778; Ramsay, Revolution in South Carolina, I, 71; Clowes’s Royal Navy, IV, 10. [569] Journals of South Carolina House of Representatives, August 31, 1779. [570] Ibid., September 6, 1779. The Senate was not willing to make so large a naval increase. [571] Ibid., February 14, 1780. [572] South Carolina Archives, Miscellaneous Records, A. Among the vessels to which the Governor gave commissions were the following: galleys “Congress,” “South Edisto,” “Revenge,” “Beaufort,” “Lee,” “Marquis de Bretigny,” and “Carolina;” sloop “Count de Kersaint,” brigantines “General Lincoln” and “Beaufort,” schooner “Eshe,” and the vessel “Lovely Julia.” The following vessels, a number of which were impressed, were in the service of the state in 1779 or 1780: galley “Rutledge,” schooners “Polly,” “Rattlesnake,” “Sally,” “Anthony,” “General Moultrie,” “Nancy,” “Three Friends,” brig “Wasp” and brigantine “Ballony.” [573] Almon’s Remembrancer, 1780, II, 44-47. [574] Previous to the siege of Charles Town, His Majesty’s navy had captured the following vessels: February, 1777, “Defence” taken by the “Roebuck” and “Perseus;” December, 1777, “Comet,” taken by the “Daphne;” April, 1779, “Hornet,” taken by the same. [575] Gibbes, Documentary History of American Revolution, 1776-1782, 181, 183. [576] Journals of South Carolina House of Representatives, February 12, 1780. [577] Journals of South Carolina House of Representatives, March 5, 1783. [578] South Carolina Archives, Miscellaneous Records, A, 66, 67; Journals of South Carolina House of Representatives, March 10, 1783, report of a committee on certain papers of Commodore Gillon. [579] South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, I, 28-32, 136-47, two letters of Gillon.