Such were the perils and uncertainties of eighteenth-century seaborne troop movements

From The Road to Guilford Courthouse by John Buchanan. Page 5.

An example of the difficulties of combined land and naval actions in the days of sail.

Meanwhile, Sir Henry Clinton, who had left Boston on 20 January, arrived off Cape Fear on 12 March to find that he had no Tories to link up with and no sign of Lord Cornwallis. His Lordship, scheduled to leave Cork in December 1775 but hindered by bureaucracy, had finally sailed on 13 February, but terrible storms delayed and dispersed the fleet and even drove some ships back to Cork. The first sails appeared off Cape Fear on 18 April, and most of the others did not drop anchor until 3 May. A final straggler limped in on 31 May. Such were the perils and uncertainties of eighteenth-century seaborne troop movements and communications.