Clarey to Thomas Tupper, December 18, 1863

Commander Clarey, U. S. N., to Mr. Tupper.

Sir: I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of this day, and in reply have to state that I shall immediately hand over the steamer Chesapeake to the authorities directed by his honor, the administrator of the government, to receive her so soon as I have signified to me the authorities appointed to receive her, and the time and place, together with one of the pirates named George Wade, who was concerned in the illegal seizure (and who was taken out of a schooner which was attempting to coal the Chesapeake, and was found wrapped up in a buffalo robe) of the steamer from the citizens of the United States on the 7th instant, and who has been identified as a pirate by the witnesses who arrived here in the United States gunboat Acacia, from the United States, this morning; also two men found on board the steamer Chesapeake when she was delivered to the officer in command of the United States steamer Ella and Annie, and who were identified by the party who delivered the steamer to the said officer as being in the employ of the pirates.

I have, &c.,