Defense preparations in Hull (map)
As John Paul Jones sailed off Hull in September 1779, the Marquis of Rockingham (the leader of the Opposition) travelled to the town, since he was also the High Sheriff of Hull. He later wrote an account to their Lordships in London :-
"..The artillery in the fort, its only defense, were unserviceable both from the carriages being entirely rotten and also from most of the guns which carried any weight of metal being honeycombed and dangerous to use. New carriages had been ordered for some of the cannon but they were at Woolwich to be ironed, and indeed if they had been at Hull, very few of the 18 pounders and 9 pounders could have been mounted on them as those cannon were so universally reckoned unserviceable and dangerous...
"It appeared to me ... that there could not be [many] soldiers or marines on board the squadron, or that with what seamen he could have spared from the ships, that [only a small] force could be landed by Paul Jones, which the Yorkshire Regt of militia under Col Harvey were as able as they were willing and desirous, to repell. Part of the Northumberland militia were also at Beverley and the neighbourhood ...
"I conceived very differently in regard to an attempt being made by the squadron coming up Humber. I therefore pressed as much as I possibly could that every effort should be made to prepare batteries and get what artillery could be had." (He then described news of the battle of Flamborough Head, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Flamborough_Head where John Paul Jones fought the British ship Serapis). "Great hopes were entertained in the ability and valour of Capt Pierson of the Serapis. The unfortunate event of their being captured after a most severe engagement came to our knowledge at Hull on the Friday evening when the mayor immediately called a meeting at which the proposition of of preparing batteries was unanimously adopted. I was informed that a vessel was detained in the port of Hull on the appearence of Paul Jones's squadron on which there was twenty 18 pounders , some 12 pounders and a few 9 pounders which were going according to orders from the ordnance to Woolwich. I ventured to suggest and press that the twenty 18 pounders particularly should be landed and that carriages should immediately be prepared for them..
"It was said at first that it would require 7 or 10 days to make serviceable carriages for them but in less than half an hour two of the capitol block makers in Hull came to us at the meeting and contracted to deliver the 20 carriages by nine o'clock on the next day (Saturday) evening. I had the satisfaction to see several of these carriages ready for use by 12 o'clock on the Saturday morning. The guns were taken out of the ship's hold on the Saturday morning and some of them mounted and carried to the Artillery Guard where there formerly had been a battery and which in a few hours would have been ready for use."
Finally they heard the news that John Paul Jones had sailed away in the captured Serapis.
In the letter above, Rockingham continually asserted he was only doing his duty, but in a private letter to his wife, Rockingham ( the leader of the Opposition in parliament) wrote "My chief object was to persuade them that the government had neglected them" !
Rockingham became prime minister again, so his ambition succeeded.