another french man, ludwick dehoo says i am in france but if the government pays for my expenses, to the ship, for me to command the ship, i get to pick my own crew and if i get killed in u.s. service, my aged mother gets a $1200 pension for life ad if i am proven to be incompetent and you fire me, i get 160 acres of land. so it is win/win. he also is rather miffed because he writes to the president and the american council in paris and doesn't understand why he is not getting a response, much less round-trip tickets. h.k. lawrence writes in and says i will destroy the jamestown within 20 days, $500,000 for the merrimac, $100,000 for the other vessels involved. wells is intrigued enough to say, well, state are plan. he does so again. hamilton tow has the same idea. $500,000 to destroy the merrimac. he apparently sees wells personally and wells turns him down later. a few days later, i writes in, how about $10,000 now and $100,000 when i blow up the merrimac. he cut his price. the navy officers were none too amused by these private contractors wanting to do what they couldn't. louie g