 On April 15 Elbert received word that the Royal Navy had been spotted off the coast, and detailed around 360 men of the Georgia Continental battalions of Fort Howe to march to Darien; from here they were to embark upon three of the galleys, "Washington", "Bulloch", and "Lee".The first was led by Captain John Hardee, the second by Captain Archibald Hatcher, and the third by Captain John Cutler Braddock.By the middle of the afternoon on April 18, the flotilla had entered the Frederica River and anchored at Pikes Bluff, close to a mile and a half above Fort Frederica.