Captured ship: St Madeleine la Vigilante of Marseilles (master Jean Baptiste Brement)....

Captured ship: St Madeleine la Vigilante of Marseilles (master Jean Baptiste Brement).

History: a French ship (tartan, 50-60 tons, 10 men), bound from Marseilles via Tripoli to Alexandria, laden with specie in the form of Mexican dollars, Tripoli sequins and bezants, as well as cochineal, tin, pepper and londrine cloth [Londrine, a fulled woollen cloth manufactured in Languedoc in imitation of English broadcloths and used in the Levant trade with the implication it was manufactured in London]; taken during the second half of 1695 between Tripoli and Alexandria.

Documents:-

Court Papers numbered CP 1-CP 6:

• [CP 1-CP 6]: dockets and wrappers for the ship's papers, but no actual court papers.

Ship's Papers in six bundles numbered SP 1/1-SP 6/10:

• SP 1/1-SP 1/15: ship's papers, some for past voyages, issued at Genoa, Toulon and Marseilles for voyages to Lisbon and Tripoli, including muster rolls, bills of health, certificates for armaments and cloth, bills of lading;
• SP 2/1-SP 2/13: all bills of lading for the current voyage;
• SP 3/1-SP 3/15: all invoices for the current voyage, including two sheets sets of colourful wool fabric samples [of Londrine] (SP 3/10-SP 3/11), which relate to a separate invoice (SP 3/12);
• SP 4/1-SP 4/9: accounts and further ship's papers for the current or past voyages, including an expenses book and papers largely documenting provisions, a memorial of debts and expeses relating to merchants at Marseilles, one letter from Anne Fougasse to the captain;
• SP 5/1-SP 5/61: mail-in-transit sent from Marseilles and Tripoli to correspondents in Ottoman Egypt, including Alexandria, Cairo and Rashid (Rosset); the letters are commercial, personal, religious, and political in nature with many written to French officials in Egypt. Correspondents include Honnoré Muradour, Vice Consul Pierre Seren, G Eon, Consul M de la Lande, Reimond Bruny, Consul M de Maillet, Henri Grimaud, Jean Pierre Arene, Joseph Vicard, Joseph Monier, Giovanni Batta and the Italian friar Mauritio di Secca; a number of the recipients were ship's captains.
• SP 6/1-SP 6/10: ten copies of the Gazette [de France] newspaper dating from 30 April-23 July 1695, numbers 21-23, 26-32.

[Decision: not yet known]