[#3Fan]

It's clear from my excerpt in post #484 that the sailors were to fight their way in to take the provisions to shore. They were fighting sailors and needed arms for such.

[nolu chan]

[#3Fan] It's clear from my excerpt in post #484 that the sailors were to fight their way in to take the provisions to shore. They were fighting sailors and needed arms for such.

Yeah. Three hundred fighting sailors in a couple of unarmed rowboats, in daylight, fighting their way past the shore batteries.

If these "fighting sailors" needed arms they were sadly out of luck. The arms were with the soldiers, the soldiers were in USS Powhatan and that ship went to Florida.

As for the excerpt, so-called, it provides no citation, no link, and does not even identify the speaker. It should at least provide a link to a signed copy of the first edition.