Virginia carried out her promise, and built at the “South Quay ship yard” two ships, the “Caswell” and “Washington.”[616] North Carolina ordered her brigantines to defend Ocracoke; and she voted £2,000 towards the equipping of Virginia’s ships, and appointed commissioners to invest this money in anchors, guns, rigging, and canvas.[617] Finally, as we shall see, she maintained at her expense one of the Virginia ships on the station at Ocracoke for a considerable period. She did not, however, meet Virginia’s expectations, which state several times expressed the belief that North Carolina had not done her share in keeping up the joint establishment.[618] Until 1778 the trade which passed through Ocracoke was rather free from annoyance. It was in January of that year that Joshua Martin, the late Royal Governor of North Carolina, wrote from New York to Lord George Germaine in London: “That the contemptible port of Ocracock has become a great channel of supply to the rebels, while the more considerable ports have been watched by the King’s ships. They have received through it considerable importations.”[619] On January 1, 1778, there arrived at Newbern a sloop from Martinique, a schooner from St. Eustatius, a schooner with salt from Bermuda, a French schooner from Hispaniola, and two schooners from the Northern states; a French scow was at the same time reported at Ocracoke.[620] A letter from Edenton, dated June 9, informs us that several foreign vessels were at the Inlet, and that a sloop had recently arrived at Edenton from France, which had on board for the Continental Congress thirteen thousand pairs of shoes, a large quantity of clothing, and a “marble Monument for Genl. Montgomery.”[621] In the spring of 1778 the North Carolina legislature voted to purchase from Virginia the ship “Caswell,” stating that it had not been able to keep its agreement with Virginia in providing a joint defence of Ocracoke. The legislature fixed the pay of the officers and seamen on board the “Caswell.”[622] In May this ship, under the command of Captain Willis Wilson, with one hundred and seventy men on board, lay off Ocracoke bar. Captain Wilson reported to Governor Caswell on May 20 that the place was not infested with British cruisers, and that a French ship and brig lay outside the Inlet, waiting to come in. In June, however, Wilson wrote that “the enemy (one ship, two sloops, and a brig) take a peep at us every now and then, but are not disposed to venture in.”[623] A sloop was now purchased at Beaufort, to act as a tender for the “Caswell,” and Richard Ellis was appointed agent at Newbern to purchase provisions and naval supplies.[624] In December, 1778, the “Caswell” was still afloat, but by June, 1779, she had sunk at her station at Ocracoke.[625] With the loss of this vessel North Carolina’s naval enterprises came to an end. Her attention was now engrossed by threatening invasions of the enemy from South Carolina.