Near-contemporary portrait of Stewart Dean , reproduced as the frontspiece in William J. Wilgus , Life of Stewart Dean, A Character of the American Revolution (Ascutney, VT, 1942).

The trade situation still had not improved by July 1785. Stewart & Jones wrote to Shirley Bangor & Company that "The Sloop Experiment, Cap. Dean, we have chartered for Madeira @ 15 ^£ Sterling pr. ton burden to Messrs. Ins, Searle & Co of your Island, our not having a voyage at present for Dean and being confident we should not have a better offer of Freight induced us to close with I. S. & Co. We mean She shall call at the Isle of May for a load of Salt on her way back." ⁷ Dean finally returned to New York on 18 October, and a few days later Stewart & Jones wrote to Van Vechten that "respecting Dean's voyage to the East Indies it's not yet altogether fixed as yet. We are now looking up a good concern of which you will hear further from us when it is finally fixed." ⁸

A little over three weeks later, on 15 November, a group of eighteen investors met at Bradford's Coffee House in New York and agreed "to fit out the Sloop Experiment Stewart Dean Master for Canton in China...the expences of Vessel & Cargo not to exceed the sum of £10,000 N.Y. Currency. We also agree that when fifteen shares

Seventeen subscribers, who included both individuals and small partnerships or firms, purchased a total of eighteen shares. Only Stewart & Jones subscribed for two shares. This firm, Stewart Dean, and Teunis T. Van Vechten, who were the joint owners of the Experiment, took up four of the original eighteen shares. ¹⁰ Furthermore, a business letter from Shirley, Bangor 8 & Co. in Madeira indicates that, in June 1785, Stewart & Jones and two of the other shareholders, Peter Schermerhorn and Ten Eyck & Seaman, were operating in partnership. ¹¹ This group thus formed no less than one-third of the total share- holding.

The day after the investors agreed to proceed with the venture, Stewart & Jones wrote Joseph Carson in Philadelphia asking him to ship them canvas duck and ginseng. "Its for Dean, of our Sloop Experiment for Canton. Our shares are all full." ¹² This letter's contents are instructive, since they clearly demonstrate the two principal concerns of the new "India Company of Experiment" fitting out their vessel and assembling a suitable cargo for the Chinese market. The first task was placed in Dean's capable hands. Under his supervision, carpenters raised the bulwarks, fitted gunports, and enlarged the stern cabin. A caboose for cooking was either fitted or, more likely, simply relined with new bricks. The carpenters also replaced defective planks and re-caulked the hull. ¹³

Some extensive changes were made to the sloop's rig. Dean fitted a new, longer topmast, so that the Experiment could spread both a topsail and a topgallant. A jib-boom extended beyond the tip of the bowsprit to carry a flying jib: The new rig provided studding sail yards and booms for the square sail and topsail yards, and gear to hoist