During the period occupied in this early naval debehavior of the crews of all of them, " in the first attack made on the "shipB in the North River," for which they had been tried and condemned by a Continental Court-martial, that officer, writing "by his Excellency's commands," (vide page 214, ante) said of the subsequent operation of those galleys, " In the late affair, Captain McCleavo mint be ex "cepted from the general censure, an he managed with prudence and "propriety. But Captain Tinker, with the wind at South, and on the " tide of flood" [flood o/£irfe?] "when the ships could move, left his vessel, "though stationed as a guard, to go up to King's Bridge, after some " clothes, as he pretends. The consequouce was, that, in the hurry and " confusion, and long before they were in danger, they left the gal- " ley aground, though they might have burned or bilged her. The enemy " took possession of her, in half an hour ; and she, with the other, left " under the like circumstances, will probably prove the most formidable " force they can have, to oppose us, on the river. There was a place of " safety provided for the other galleys, which they might have got into, " as well as McCleave ; but they passed it, in their hurry." {General Washington, through the Adjutant-general, to Governor Trumbull, '■ Headquarters, October 18, 1776.")

1 [Hall's] History of the Oml War in America, i., 187.