Captured ship: Conquis or Concord or Conquest of La Rochelle (master Joseph Compere...

Captured ship: Conquis or Concord or Conquest of La Rochelle (master Joseph Compere or Campere).

History: a French slave trader ship (160 tons, 20 guns), bound from La Rochelle to Loango and the French Antilles, transporting around 140 enslaved people; taken in fight on 9/19 April 1697 on the coast of Loango by the English slave trader ship Johns Bonadventure (John Ford commanding) and the Dutch privateer Dolphin of Middelburg (Mathieu Boegart commanding); the captors divided the goods and enslaved people between them at Angola but ransomed the badly-damaged Conquis back to Compere, and the Johns Bonaventure then sailed for Carlisle Bay, Barbados, where the captives were sold by inch of candle.

Documents:-

For detailed descriptions of the ship's papers from the Conquis, see HCA 32/1865/24A, HCA 32/1865/24B, and HCA 32/1865/24C.

Court Papers:

• [CP 1-CP 2]: two allegations;
• [CP 3-CP 5]: two sets of interrogatories, docket;

Ship's papers, numbered SP 1-SP 77; the archive of Joseph Compere, largely accumulated as his crew bartered for and captured people at Loango so sell into slavery:

• SP 1-SP 15: muster rolls, ship's passes, customs papers, cargo lists, blank printed official documents, dating back to 1691;
• SP 16-SP 60: letters to Compere from different crew while they were at Loango with two to Sao Tomé, subjects include the conduct of the slave trade, trade and diplomacy with merchants and kings at Loango, arms trading, conflicts involving the crew and sickness; other letters were sent to Compere from members of his family in France;
• SP 61-SP 77: mostly provision lists and accounts relating to the crew and enslaved people aboard.

[Decision: ship and cargo part-condemned, 20 July 1699]