ABSTRACT
The Commodore's last "bon voyage" from American shores was a dinner given by John Jay, Saturday evening, November 10, 1787, at which about forty guests were assembled, and which is described in the chronicles of the time as a grand affair. From Mr. Jay's hospitable roof the Commodore went about two o'clock Sunday morning to what is now Cortlandt street wharf, where a boat waited to set him on board the good ship Governor Clinton, then lying off the Battery, cable hove short, awaiting only her distinguished passenger to weigh anchor and drop down through the Narrows with the young ebb-tide. The Governor Clinton was the fastest ship of her day. She had been built by Mr. Peck, of Boston, just at the close of the war, for a privateer, but the advent of peace caused her to be converted into a packet. She had already made several very rapid voyages, but this one, in which she carried Paul Jones and his fortunes, broke all previous records. Clearing Sandy Hook at daylight November 11, 1787, she hove to off Dover Castle, November 30th—nineteen days from New York to the Strait of Dover, where she landed the Commodore and then proceeded to her destination, which was Antwerp.*
