Autographs
Admiral Thomas Shirley HMS Lark 1763 Signed Document
THOMAS SHIRLEY (1733-1814). Admiral Thomas Shirley in the Service of the Royal Navy. This Document From the Famous 32 Gun Survey Ship the H.M.S. Lark.


February 25, 1763-Dated French & Indian War Period, Manuscript Document Signed, Tho.(mas) Shirley,” as the British Commander of the His Majesty’s Ship Lark, Fine. Thomas Shirley signs this Manuscript Letter regarding the fine service of John Collins, being his Master Mate aboard the Ship Lark during the year 1762. It is boldly Signed by Thomas Shirley at the conclusion. This Document measures 8” x 10” being boldly written in deep brown ink on laid and watermarked GR with Crown, period paper. There are some early taped repairs to an edge fold split that is just above and away from the signature, and another internal near center, with some soiling on the blank docketed back. A rarely encountered British Naval signature and a ship tied to use in the American Revolutionary War.

Hugh Palliser took over as Governor of Newfoundland in 1764. He and the famous Captain James Cook traveled together on H.M.S. Lark, under Captain Samuel Thompson, from Britain in May. The Lark was a new ship, having been built in 1762 in Rotherhithe by Bird. It was a 5th rate, 646 tons, 38.7 meters long and 10.4 meters wide, and carried 32 guns. The Lark ended its Naval career as it was scuttled at Newport, Rhode Island in 1778, at the same time as the Endeavour.
In 1777, the H.M.S. Lark was stationed off Arnold's Point on the northwestern coast of Aquidneck Island, the Lark was the first to challenge and engage Rhode Island vessels as they tried to escape through the Bristol Ferry narrows into Mount Hope Bay.

In November 1777, she returned from Boston Bay to Rhode Island with a stowaway: smallpox. The Lark was hauled inside Goat Island, and her crew was put ashore, her ballast removed, and her interior washed with vinegar and fumigated with tobacco or gunpowder smoke. Despite these precautions, the disease spread among the citizens of Newport.

In March 1778, Louis XVI of France recognized the United States of America and entered the war as an ally of the new nation. The entrance of France permanently changed the character of the war.

Lark was stationed in the West Passage in 1778 to stop ships as they raced for the open sea. In March she engaged the Continental Frigate Columbus, running her ashore and setting her afire. In May she challenged the Continental Frigate Providence but she escaped. to avoid seizure by the French, who were in Narragansett Bay to assist American forces.

On August 5, 1778, her Captain Smith ran the Lark aground and set her on fire to avoid capture by the French who were assisting American forces in Naragansett Bay, as did the captains of the Cerberus, Orpheus and Juno. A short time later, the Lark's 76 barrels of gunpowder exploded, burning a nearby house and rocketing debris as far as three miles inland. Reflecting on the incidents, British engineer Frederick Mackenzie wrote in his diary, "It was a most mortifying sight to us, who were Spectators of this conflagration, to see so many fine Frigates destroyed in so short a time, without any loss on the part of the Enemy."