High Court of Admiralty. Captured ship: Molly formerly Mercury (master John Lusk,...

High Court of Admiralty.

Captured ship: Molly formerly Mercury (master John Lusk, prize master James Bauchope).

Capture history: a British transport ship in HM service (350 or 400 tons, 16 men) bound from Nova Scotia to New York, laden with beef, bread, bedding; taken at latter end of November 1776 about a day's sailing from Louisbourg by the American privateer Alfred (John Paul Jones commanding), and brought to Rhode Island; retaken by the Irish prisoner / American prize-master James Bachope and crew [with no commission, in a revolt against the enemy and therefore droits - but not expressed as such here] on 5 December 1776 off Boston, Massachusetts, and brought first into Londonderry, Ireland, and then into Plymouth.

Intended voyage: from North America to the United States.

Court papers numbered CP 1-7:-

• [CP 1]: attestation as to papers (no papers) brought in by the prize master James Bachope, London, 9 February 1778;
• [CP 2]: deposition of James Bauchope or Bachope, aged 21, born Londonderry but now of Liverpool, taken in London, 10 February 1778, a loyal subject. He describes in great detail being taken prisoner when second mate of the brigantine Favourite of Liverpool, taken in September 1776 by the American privateer Providence (John Paul Jones commanding), when he became a prisoner of war in Rhode Island; trying to escape he was found and put on the American privateer Alfred (John Paul Jones again commanding), part of the American squadron commanded by Commodore Esek Hopkins, and served on cruises of the Alfred and Providence in which the Americans took seven British transport ships, one of which was the Molly, of which Jones made him prize master and ordered him into Rhode Island with the rest of the prizes. The English master John Lusk remained on board, with five men and two boys from the Alfred. On 5 December 1776, in bad weather off Boston, Bachope successfully persuaded the small and inexperienced crew (with no help from Lusk) that they should attempt to escape, and so they made a difficult and slow 7-week crossing of the Atlantic with little assistance from Lusk and much opposition from the crew, eventually reaching Londonderry on 17 or 18 January 1777, where he reported to the Collector, and received Admiralty orders to bring the Molly into Plymouth, which he did and handed over her papers to the Commissioners of the Dockyard;
• [CP 3]: standing interrogatories; deposition of William Brand, a prisoner of the Americans on the Molly, commissioners affidavit, and affidavit of no papers, taken at Portsmouth, 28 February 1778;
• [CP 4]: attestation and claim of Samuel Seddon on behalf of Alexander Speirs and other of Glasgow, merchants, as owners of the Molly, and of the Commissioners of the Navy for her cargo, 28 February 1778;
• [CP 5]: affidavit of James Bachope of Youlgreave, Derbyshire, submitting an account of expenditure and time lost in retaking Molly, attending the Admiralty, Navy Board and High Court of Admiralty, 6 March 1778;
• [CP 6]: Bauchope's detailed account od exepnditure, amounting to £310 14s;
• [CP 7]: registrar's report agreeing to the payment and noting that Bauchope is also due an eighth of the value of the ship Molly and cargo for salvage, 28 March 1778.

[Papers previously wrongly identified as Court papers: 1-6 (large pencil numbers): sorted and renumbered in 2025].