High Court of Admiralty. Captured ship: Diligent of Bayonne (commander Mathieu Rodes)....

High Court of Admiralty.

Captured ship: Diligent of Bayonne (commander Mathieu Rodes).

Capture history: a French merchant ship with a letter of marque (115 tons, 4 guns, 8 swivels, 15 men) bound from Bayonne to Virginia, laden with salt, brandy, linen, wine, pins and needles; taken on 28 October 1778 about 45 leagues N of Cape Pinas, Spain by the privateer Tartar (William Rogers commanding), and brought into Poole.

Intended voyage: from France to the United States.

Court papers numbered CP 1-5:-

• [CP 1]: attestation as to papers (numbered 1-30) brought in by the prize master Thomas Abbot, 13 November 1778;
• [CP 2]: standing interrogatories;
• [CP 3]: three depositions of Jean Baptiste Lalanne second captain, Dominique Lassalde lieutenant, and Pierre Fadeville surgeon, all of Bayonne, and commissioners' affidavit, taken at Poole, 13 November 1778;
• [CP 4]: translation of ship's papers, 8 December 1778;
• [CP 5]: allegation, 9 December 1778.

Ship's Papers numbered SP 1-30:-

• SP 1: ship's pass, Bayonne to Virginia, 18 September 1778;
• SP 2: customs pass;
• SP 3: customs form, Guadeloupe, 1774;
• SP 4: agreement for repairs, Santander, 13 October 1778;
• SP 5: muster roll;
• SP 6-SP 8: factures etc of the owner Louis Alexandre;
• SP 9: cargo book;
• SP 10: owner's instructions, Bayonne, to Rodes, Santander, 9 October 1778;
• SP 11: duplicate of owner's instructions, Bayonne, to Rodes, Santander, 2 October 1778 (perhaps enclosed in SP 10);
• SP 12: owner's instructions, Bayonne, to Rodes, Santander, 12 October 1778;
• SP 13: [sea protest] explaining that damage caused by bad weather required putting in to Santander, 27 September 1778;
• SP 14: brief note of cargo;
• SP 15-SP 16: agreement for repair of the vessel Le Caremer, Bayonne, May 1778;
• SP 17-SP 18: notes, accounts;
• SP 19: certificate of the Apothecaries of Bayonne, as to Fadeville's medicine chest;
• SP 20-SP 21: lists of provisions and necessaries;
• SP 22: certificate of tonnage;
• SP 23: bill of health, Bayonne, 18 September 1778;
• SP 24-SP 26: calculations, notes, accounts;
• SP 27: list of 8 American contacts in Baltimore, South Quay, Edenton, Wilmington, New Bern and Hampton;
• SP 28: letter from Marianne Echeverris, Bayonne, to M Dubois, surgeon major of the troops in the town of Rairtont, New England [Raritan, New Jersey ?], 10 September 1778; a very reproachful letter, accusing him of leaving her and her child without even bread;
• SP 29: vocabulary list of maritime terms in French, with phonetic English translations (parts of a ship, and useful phrases);
• SP 30: letter of marque, 18 September 1778.

[Papers previously wrongly identified as Court papers: 1-8; Ship's papers: 9-38 (large pencil numbers): sorted and renumbered in 2025].

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