Hello Richard,

I had thought that the mention of using grooved rolls was covered by the references.
However,  when I read the paper again I found that the statement is not directly referenced. As I do not have access to the documents by John Reeder which are given in the references I tell if it is covered by them.
Until an explicit reference in a historic document is produced is made available, it must be considered to be unproved.

I have been looking at newspaper reports about John Cort and his ship, the Abby.  He certainly visited Jamaica several times as indicated by advertisements in the Royal Gazette of Jamaica.

I have been following up reference 159 in Jenny Bulstrode’s paper. The report of the letter written by Sir Thomas Rich appeared in a number of newspapers including the Hampshire Chronicle 26 November 1781.

I have attached an image of the first part of the newspaper report of the letter

You will see that the Princess Royal lost contact with a number of ships including the Abby on the 6th November.

Jenny Bulstrode says ‘Later that same year he was returning from Jamaica in convoy,158 when the Abby was separated and taken off course. ‘[L]eaky, sickly and short of provisions’, they abandoned their intended destination of Lancaster. By dint of ‘incessant pumping’, with just ‘three days bread’ to spare, they weighed in at Portsmouth,159’

It was the Princess Royal which arrived at Portsmouth with “incessant pumping and three days bread”. Nothing is said about what happened to the Abby.  This letter seems to have been misread by Jenny.

The second attachment is the remainder of the report of Sir Thomas’s letter.