The Wardroom is still alive with excited conversation concerning our capture yesterday of the American privateer 'Polly', taken with the aid of HMS Colibrie. The action was swift and achieved with a minimum of injuries to the Acasta crew, such that my services were scarcely required.
After a careful inspection of the Polly above and below decks, Capt Freymann assembled a prize crew from the Acasta to take her back to Halifax. The prize crew was rounded out by several of the Colibrie's lot.
It is my understanding that the Polly was filled to the brim with guns, ammunition and provisions out of Marblehead.
Whilst taking my supper with the Lieutenants, they had already begun to calculate the relative worth of the schooner and her cargo. Lt Hamilton seems fairly certain that he knows exactly how the prize money will be split up, and Lt Ramsey has already started planning how he intends to spend his portion, which involves tales of a bolt of fabric that he saw at a particular shop while last ashore. Fine linen with which to make a new pair of trousers or to use as the lining for a new coat or some such foolishness as this.
Please do not think me morose if I do not plot how to squander the prize before it is in my hands, but this evening my mind is elsewhere. I am distracted at cards with my friends, I cannot focus to read more than a few words together in any book that I pick up.
As a Physician, I have attempted to trace and diagnose the cause of my ailment in the same way I might root out any other disease, but thus far to no avail. Lt Hamilton claimed after several very poor tricks at Whist, that I have not been as good a card-partner since my return from the action aboard the Playfair. Upon further examination, I think he may be correct.
Account of the capture of the Polly taken from:
"AMERICAN VESSELS CAPTURED BY THE BRITISH DURING THE Revolution and War of 1812
The Records of the Vice-Admiralty Court at Halifax, Nova Scotia."
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