Captured ship: Marie of Bayonne (master Jean Derratzou). History: a French merchant...

Captured ship: Marie of Bayonne (master Jean Derratzou).

History: a French merchant ship (snow, 102 tons, 14 men) bound from Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island, to Bayonne, laden with cod fish, oil, rhubarb and tea; taken on 21 December 1744 / 1 January 1745 in latitude 47° 30' N, 9° E from Pico Tenerife by the privateer Bacchus of London (Thomas Wadham commanding) and brought into Poole.

The ship was built at Bayonne in 1736, and at the time of her capture was owned by Jean Garderes, a Bayonne merchant. Derratzou had been master of her about a year, for the round trip from Bayonne, from where she sailed on 11/22 April 1744 bound for Louisbourg laden with sailcloth, bacon, leather, nails, butter, bread, wine, vinegar, brandy and salt. They delivered that cargo to Louisbourg, arriving 7/18 June, and then made a fishing voyage, and loaded at Louisbourg in September, October and November with 1100 quintals of dry cod, plus the private adventure of the master and crew: 7 barrels of cod oil, 5 barrels of cod spawn, 1 small case of tea, and one small case of rhubarb. Part of the cargo of fish was caught by the master and crew, and the rest purchased from Rotheree & Hillyar and others at Louisbourg. They left Louisbourg bound for Bayonne in November. The master put the value of the ship and cargo at the time of capture at 17,000 livres, and his own personal loss at 2,000 livres (private adventure plus lost wages).

Documents:-

Court Papers:

• [CP 1-CP 2]: standing interrogatories, two examinations (Jean Derratzou, Pierre Cassamaju, both inhabitants of Saint-Jean-de-Luz), commissioners' affidavit;
• [CP 3]: attestation as to the perishable nature of the cargo;
• [CP 4]: allegation;
• [CP 5-CP 6]: attestation as to papers, and abstract and translation of the first 22 ship's papers (SP 1-SP 22). The other six ship's papers, now numbered SP 23-SP 28, were described by the court translator as 'six letters in a language I don't understand and therefore I have neither marked translated or abstracted them'. They are, in fact, written in the Basque language.

Ship's Papers (including letters) numbered SP 1-SP 28:

• [SP 1-SP 7]: ship's papers:
  • [SP 1]: statement of the cargo (1000 quintals of cod);
  • [SP 2]: ship's pass (congé & passeport);
  • [SP 3]: muster roll (rolle de l'equipage);
  • [SP 4]: customs receipt at Bayonne, April 1744;
  • [SP 5]: statement of the cargo;
  • [SP 6]: Bayonne customs certificate, endorsed at Louisbourg;
  • [SP 7]: extrait des registres du greffe de Louisbourg, 18 June 1744;
• [SP 8-SP 22]: letters in the French language:
  • [SP 8-SP 16, SP 18]: mail-in-transit from Louisbourg, in French, dated November 1744;
  • [SP 17, SP 19-SP 22]: letters in possession of the addressees at the time of the capture, in French, dated 1741.
• [SP 23-SP 28]: six letters in the Basque language, comprising four from wives in Guéthary near Saint-Jean-de-Luz to husbands in Louisbourg (SP 23-24, SP 26-27), one to a brother (SP 25), and one from Louisbourg to the writer's mother in Guéthary (SP 28). SP 28 was presumably mail-in-transit, while the other letters would in all probability have been in the possession of the addressees on board the ship when she was captured:
  • SP 23: to my dear husband, n.d.;
  • SP 24: from Savadinna De Perere, Guéthary, 20 April 1744, to her husband, Pierre de Detheberry in Louisbourg;
  • SP 25: to 'my dear brother' Joanni de Goihetcheri..., n.d. but mentions a letter of 2 July 1741;
  • SP 26: from Maria de Derrogere to her husband Ganis de Hirigoiien Echetoren in Louisbourg, 1741 (presumably originally enclosed in SP 27);
  • SP 27: (same hand as SP 26) to her husband in Louisbourg, Miguel de Darrupe, 1741;
  • SP 28: from Dernat de Casabon, Louisbourg, 15 November 1744, to his mother in Guéthary. Shows signs of a folding pattern. Although presumably mail-in-transit, the back of the letter has been used to write sums on, so this letter may have been intended to be hand delivered by someone on board.

[Decision: condemned as prize, 26 January 1745]