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16. Keith to Smith
Utrecht. at Sheerness.
June 23. 1803.
Sir, It has not been without considerable surprise that I have learned you have been in Dover Roads without making any communication to me of your proceedings in the execution of my orders of the 7th instant. Their Lordships cannot fail to infer a want of attention on my part to the duties of my station if I neglect to communicate to them the proceedings of officers acting under special orders from me, and that, too, on service which they consider as of an important nature.
I therefore desire that you will transmit to me a report of your observations at Dunkirk and of any intelligence of importance that you may have received on that service, and that you will send me a journal of your proceedings while employed on that duty, explaining the circumstances being hitherto withheld; and that on future occasions of the like nature you will take the readiest means of communicating with me, sending copies of them to the Secretary of the Admiralty, if you have thereby a chance of making them more speedily known to their Lordships. I have &c.
KEITH
LLoyd, C . (eds.) (1955) The Keith Papers, vol III, 1803-1815. Navy Records Society, pp. 24 -25
Web Page: Rickard, J (24 July 2006), Keith to Secretary of Admiralty, http://www.historyofwar.org/sources/acw/napoleonic/nrs1955/1_1_16..html