High Court of Admiralty. Captured ship: Effingham (master Joseph Costin). History:...

High Court of Admiralty.

Captured ship: Effingham (master Joseph Costin).

History: an American merchant ship (ship, 350 or 450 tons, 14 men, formerly the English ship Annapolis of London, master James Hanrick, taken on 2 March 1778 by the American privateer Independance, Peter Pollard commanding, and take into Boston, Massachusetts) now bound from Pownalborough, Maine to Cadiz, laden with masts, yards, spars, white oak plank, pine planks, bowspits, anchor stocks, hand spikes, staves; taken on 20 January 1779 in latitude 38°20'N, longitude 22°40'W by the privateer George (Peter Wade commanding), and brought into Bristol.

Court papers numbered CP 1-4:-

• [CP 1]: attestation as to papers (numbered 1) brought in by the prize master Hammett Forsyth, third lieutenant, 4 February 1779;
• [CP 2]: four depositions of Samuel Conant junior, merchant, Joseph Costin, James West mariner, and Samuel Turner, second mate, all of Boston, commissioners' affidavit, taken at Bristol, 8 February 1779;
• [CP 3]: attestation and claim of Christopher Court merchant of London, one of the owners of the ship Annapolis of London, 3 March 1779;
• [CP 4]: allegation.

Ship's Papers numbered SP 1:-

• SP 1: detailed owners instructions, with invoice of cargo, of Messrs Godman & Smith, Boston to Samuel Conant, supercargo on the Effingham, to take the ship from Sheepscut River to Cadiz, sell the cargo, sell the vessel (worth £3,000 sterling), and buy two in Cadiz, if this is not possible, proceed to a French port to purchase as many prize vessels as you can afford, 7 December 1778.

[Papers previously wrongly identified as Court papers: 1-7; Ship's papers: 8 (large pencil numbers): sorted and renumbered in 2025].