Captured ship: Charity otherwise Liefde of Ostend (master Jacob Bourne of Ostend)....

Captured ship: Charity otherwise Liefde of Ostend (master Jacob Bourne of Ostend).

Capture history: a Flemish (Spanish Netherlands) merchant ship (260-300 tons, 17 men and a passenger, formerly the Dutch ship Liefde, built in the Dutch Republic and new when taken by the French 12 months before, brought into Dunkirk and condemned as prize in 1672, bought at Dunkirk by Manuel De La Mendoza, M van der Cruijse and Peter Corsellis), now bound from Mardijk near Dunkirk to La Rochelle and Bayonne, laden with pepper (from another Dutch prize taken by a French privateer); taken on 13/23 August 1673 about 8 leagues off Scilly and about 6 leagues from the Lizard by HMS Hunter (George Colt commanding) and brought into Falmouth the same day.

Court Papers, numbered CP 1-CP 4 :-

• [CP 1-CP 2]: two sets of interrogatories;
• [CP 3]: four examinations, Plymouth 19 August 1673;
• [CP 4]: two examinations, Plymouth, 6 September 1673.

The master served the Dutch seven years before in 3 voyages to Guinea and elsewhere. He said that, before the capture, some of the pepper was looted by another (unnamed) English ship. 2 examinants from the captor said that they heard the navigator of the prize say that the ship had been sold back to the original Dutch owners after condemnation at Dunkirk.

Ship's papers appear to have been restored: had been bills of lading etc, and the master also had some letters from his brother and other relations; the master said he signed only 1 bill of lading, which was coloured (false), in order to deceive Dutch privateers.