Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 3
I just now received the inclosed,1 but as I do not care to take it upon myself to give directions concerning it, I beg you to lay it before the Committee, & procure their answer to Mr. Lewis as soon as possible. The man of war’s men set fire to the ship bleu mountain valley last night, but it being discovered before it got much head, was happily extinguish’d.2 If they appear on such another frolic, I believe the Towns men here will make them repent it. I am Sir your most humble Sert.
Enclosed letter from Francis Lewis to William Livingston, Mar. 20, 1776, on the supply of cannon and shot is published in Letters of Delegates, 3:417–419.
The Blue Mountain Valley, commanded by Capt. James Hamilton Dempster, was a transport from England “with Coals, Porter, Potatoes, Hogs, & Horse Beans designed for the ministerial Troops at Boston.” A combined force of Continental troops under William Alexander and Elias Dayton captured the ship on Jan. 23 and took it into Elizabethtown, N.J. On the night of Mar. 26 men from the H.M.S. Asia set fire to the Blue Mountain Valley but without much success (Naval Documents of the American Revolution, 3:1200–1203, 4:547).