War Office November 10^th 1797 Sir [Jacob Sheaps Esq^r] The Anchor which is in the Navy yard at Portsmouth of 14. 7. 14 being desirable and much wanted for the Frigate Constitution lying in the Chesapeek below Baltimore I have to request that you will be pleased to get it conveyed to the said Ship in the cheapest and most expeditious manner possible. If no opportunity should offer at Portsmouth for a vessel part in the Chesapeek, you are in that case to direct either the masters of Boston or New York and by no means to let it be ordered at either of those places, but to be taken along side of the Frigate, which will by that time be at Anchor in some part of the Chesapeek Bay or Patapsco. I am Sir J. M^cH Sir [M^r Bazot Vaughan] You are hereby appointed as Clerk of the Navy yard at Philadelphia, your pay to commence from the Eleventh inst. at the rate of Two hundred dollars [p^r ann^m]. For that compensation it will be expected that you perform the duty of Clerk of the said Yard agreeably to the instructions which are now enclosed and all such others as may be given from time to time given you by the Secretary of War for your direction. Given at the War Office of the United States this 11^th Nov^r 1797 J. M^cH