Captured ship: La Royale of Dunkirk (commander Pierre Le Febvre otherwise Pierre...

Captured ship: La Royale of Dunkirk (commander Pierre Le Febvre otherwise Pierre Juin).

History: a French privateer (180 tons, 22 guns, 220 men on muster but only 111 at the time of capture), bound from Dunkirk on a North Sea cruise from April 1745 onwards in consort with La Duchesse de Penthievre and Le Marsonin; returning to Dunkirk, was taken in fight of 5-6 hours on 23 June / 4 July 1745 (with La Duchesse de Penthievre), being driven onto a sandbank off Ostend by HMS Bridgwater (Lord George Graham commanding), HMS Sheerness (William Gordon commanding) and HMS Ursula (John Fergusson commanding), and brought first into Ostend, and then into London.

Documents:-

Court Papers:

• [Examinations taken in London, see: HCA 13/90, fos 237, 262, 270];
• [CP 1]: schedule of guns taken from the George and Mary by La Royale (in English);
• [CP 2]: allegation;
• [CP 3-CP 4]: two attestations with annexed claims;
• [CP 5-CP 8]: attestation as to papers, and abstracts and translations of 56 ship's papers, two translations of ransom bills.

Ship’s Papers:

• SP 1-SP 43: papers found aboard La Royale, letter of marque, muster roll, list of people to be ransomed, ransom bills, signal list for communication with the two French privateers La Duchesse de Penthievre and Le Marsonin, instructions, letters, ransom obligations, etc;
• SP 44-SP 99: papers in English taken from English, Scottish and Irish ships captured by La Royale, journals, medical recipes, some personal and business letters, bills, accounts. Taken from (among others, some mentioned in SP 1-SP 43):-
  • Elizabeth of Dunbar (master John Abercrombie);
  • Seaflower of Dunbar (master Thomas Fergusson);
  • George and Mary of Sunderland (master George Leighton);
  • Thomas and Elizabeth of Sunderland (master James Henderson);
  • Don Carlos (master David Ballantyne);
  • Esther (master John Bowes);
  • Workington (master Joseph Curwen);
  • Jeney of Londonderry (master Robert McCool);
  • Grissel (master Spink).

[Decision: condemned as prize, 5 September 1745]