Navy Yard 21 August 1795. Sir. I have considered Col^o Claghorn's letters of the 9^th July and 7^th of August, with attention, am of opinion, that if some of the timbers were less than the directions, sideways, they may be put in the ship, if in every other respect they are good, and not too great a deviation from the dimensions; in this I would recommend discretionary power with M^r Clag[undecipherable] The objections that were stated to the strength of pine beams, were no cause why they were made one inch larger than at first intended: the dimension of the pine was never altered for the Oak, and a reducing the sizes of the oak will tend to durability, I conceive there will be no impropriety in making them 15 by 17, which is only half an inch larger than Col^o Claghorn wishes, the others in the same proportion. (signed) Joshua Humphreys The Hon^ble Timothy Pickering, Esquire.