Captured ship: La Fatchay or Le Fatéchay , otherwise Le Charles , otherwise Restoration...

Captured ship: La Fatchay or Le Fatéchay, otherwise Le Charles, otherwise Restoration, otherwise Queen of Hungary (master Bernard Baudran de Limonais; as a British prize, Philip Lucas).

History: a French East Indiaman (600 tons, 18 or 20 carriage guns, 81 men), sent to Mergui from Pondicherry to load wood, laden with salt and iron; taken on 30 May/10 June 1745 in the River Mergrim, a Portuguese settlement in Siam [Mergui, modern-day Myeik in Burma], by Philip Lucas and 26 other men, the crew of a ship named Providence (William Patch commanding), who had been forced into that port in February or March 1745 by the unseaworthy state of their vessel, and were marooned there when she could not be repaired. In two small boats they rowed out to La Fatchay and took her by force. Having no commission or letter of marque against the French, in January 1746 they delivered their prize up as droits of Admiralty to HMS Medway's Prize (Thomas Griffin commanding), who brought her into Calcutta, and then Madras, where she was sold and the proceeds held by Griffin as prize agent for his men. When Griffin died, the money went to his widow; when she died, it was held by her executors.

When they returned to England, the offficers and men of the Medway's Prize claimed La Fatchay as prize. This was disputed by the real captors.

Documents:-

Court Papers:

• [CP 1]: attestation relating to papers in the custody of John Miles, 21 January 1751;
• [CP 2]: release of Wildey French and others, 24 January 1751;
• [CP 3]: affidavit decalring that the proceeds of the sale of the prize went to Griffin; he died, his wife received the money; she died, and her executors hold the money, 19 June 1752;
• [CP 4-CP 5]: allegation of the men of the Providence (detailed account of the circumstances of the capture), 13 November 1752, with log book kept by the captors (the crew of Providence), which was sent in with the allegation;
• [CP 6]: special proxy;
• [CP 7-CP 15]: attestation and statements of account of Thomas Griffin, with some of Griffin's papers from Medway's Prize, including money advanced by him and owing to him, two letters to him, and the bill for Philip Lucas's funeral in Calcutta;
• [CP 16-CP 17]: attestation and schedule of objections to Griffin's accounts;
• [CP 18-CP 21]: attestation and three bills from the executors of Griffin's executrix;
• [CP 22-CP 25]: rough notes relating to lawyers' fees and proceeds of sale;
• [CP 26]: Registrar's report on the objections to the accounts;
• [CP 27-CP 30]: Warrants from the King and Lords Justices, for £1000 to be paid to the captors from the perquisites of Admiralty, and other payments to be made from the residue, with a report on the petition of the captors;
• [CP 31-CP 33]: attestation as to papers, and abstract and translation of the 13 ship's papers.

Ship's Papers:

• SP 1-SP 10: papers from when she was a French ship, before capture;
• SP 11-SP 13: examinations and statements made at Madras after the capture.

[Decision: initially condemned as prize (but reserving judgement as to the claim of the Medway's Prize) and later as droits of Admiralty. Eventually, £1000 was granted to the surviving crewmen of the Providence]