My never-ending research project! Part of it is the distractions of life; running my own shop, evenings as a performer of historical and maritime music… But part of it is following up various leads that often not only bear fruit but provide further leads. I, therefore, have amassed quite a collection and fat files on the ship and many of the crew members. Some of you have reached out to me but I have never heard from again – Please feel encouraged to renew our contact! Others have been in touch and we have made meaningful headway together – thank you!
In following Madame Legras – the business associate of Moses Tryon in Saint Domingue – I have gotten rather an education on that period of Haitian history and the travels of the exiles. Also access to church/civic records leading up to the 1791 uprising. In the biography for Moses Tryon that I have been writing I will provide something of a biography and genealogy for her and her descendants through life in New Orleans, Louisiana. I have been trying to get in touch with a local historian in Haiti but thus far have come up empty. But in France I have several contacts who have been most helpful!
As for Moses; but for a few loose ends I had suspected that – short of finally finding his portrait – I had reached the end of useful new data and the outline had been written and mostly filled in. And yet just recently an old request I had sent to a repository was replied to (some four plus years later!) with the information that new documents had been deposited in their collections! And they told me of another repository that I would never have thought of holding even more personal information/documents! Road trips in the planning stages.
As for several requests for what the USS Connecticut had looked like, I have amassed enough data to be almost certain of her appearance… But thus far I am unaware of any contemporary images or plans having survived to this day. The images of vessels I have in the header are NOT of the USS Connecticut but rather are more recently drawn images of vessels during this war, borrowed off the internet as public domain. There are some images used not long afterwards cited AS the USS Connecticut but these are in fact generic transfers used for pottery, tableware, and printed matter commissioned by people here from makers in England… To prove the point, the very same images were used for myriad vessels with the name being the only variation. And keep in mind that these vessels DID look different from each other at this stage of the US Navy.
More to come…