Captured ship: Le Fuyard (master Jean Pierre Chauroy). History: a French merchant...

Captured ship: Le Fuyard (master Jean Pierre Chauroy).

History: a French merchant ship (90 tons, 10 men), bound from Bordeaux to Dunkirk, laden with brandy and salt; taken on 29 May / 9 June 1748 off Beachy Head by the privateer Cambridge (Henry Cooper commanding), and brought into Dover.

The ship was seized after the cessation of hostilities; when the privateer's captain learned of the cessation, he returned to release her, but she crashed into the pier-head of Dover Harbour, and it was necessary to bring her into the harbour for repairs. The privateer's agent, James Goldfrap, organised the repairs and offered the ship and cargo back to the master, and to pay him costs and damages, but the French master refused to take back the ship, and instead he and his crew returned to France by other means, and subsequently claimed damages, alleging the privateer's crew had drunk much of the ship's cargo of brandy.

Documents:-

Court Papers:

• [CP 1-CP 4]: standing interrogatories, two examinations, commissioners' affidavit;
• [CP 5]: releases;
• [CP 6-CP 12]: 7 attestations;
• [CP 13-CP 14]: allegation by the French master with a schedule of damages;
• [CP 15]: attestation by the shipwrights who repaired her;
• [CP 16-CP 20]: schedules of damages and bill of expenses.

[Decision: condemned as prize, 24 October 1748]