Captured ship: City of Hamburg otherwise Stadt von Hamburg of Hamburg (master Peter...

Captured ship: City of Hamburg otherwise Stadt von Hamburg of Hamburg (master Peter Tamm, otherwise Peeter Tham).

History: a Hamburg merchant ship (fluit, 300-420 tons, 23 guns, 29 seamen and 26 soldiers, built at Hamburg for the owners, launched June 1672), bound northabout from Archangel in Russia to Livorno, laden with Russia hides, salmon, iron bars, cinnamon, deal boards, stockfish and Russia leather; intending for Galway, Ireland, for water, but came by mistake into the creek of Aghras near Boffine [Aughrus near Inishbofin] in the west of Galway, on 4/14 December 1672; at anchor there on 14/24 December. Local people kidnapped the men who came ashore for water and seized their ships boat. Released on 14/24 December, on the arrival of the deputy vice-admiral of Galway, William Hamelton, who asked the master to venture the ship against Dutch privateers and was boarded by soldiers, but Tamm refused to cooperate, and the ship was cast away on rocks shortly after on 30 December 1672/9 January 1673. (The crew were in great fear of meeting Scots privateers.)

Documents:-

Court Papers, numbered CP 1-CP 17 :-

• [CP 1]: seventeen examinations (copies) taken at Galway, 10 December 1672, 3, 6-9, 13 and 14 January 1672/3
• [CP 2]: (a duplicate of CP 1);
• [CP 3]: four examinations taken at Galway, 31 May 1673;
• [CP 4]: Abstract, in two parts, of papers numbered to 20;
• [CP 5]: an HCA translation of the cargo manifest numbered 21 [SP 21];
• [CP 6]: letter of William Hamilton to William, Earl of Clanricarde, Vice Admiral of Connaught, 25 December 1672;
• [CP 7]: letter of William Hamilton to Gregory Cunstable and James Bulsteele, 25 December 1672;
• [CP 8]: copy of commission to George Stanton and Robert Skerett for the salvage of the ship, 11 January 1672/1673;
• [CP 9]: Stanton and Skerett's accounts for the salvage of the ship, 13 January 1672/3-16 June 1673, 17 June 1673;
• [CP 10]: certificate of the governor of Inishbofin, 14 January 1672/3;
• [CP 11]: letter of William Yelverton to William, Earl of Clanricarde, 17 January 1672/1673;
• [CP 12]: account of equipment and goods salvaged from the ship, (undated), enclosed in CP 11;
• [CP 13]: letter of William, Earl of Clanricarde, to Sir John Werden, 17 January 1672/1673;
• [CP 14]: 'A breefe account', a short narrative by William, Earl of Clanricarde, of the loss of the ship, (undated), enclosed in CP 13;
• [CP 15]: petition of Stanton and Skerett, (undated), endorsed 3 June 1673;
• [CP 16]: letter of William, Earl of Clanricarde, to the Duke of York's commissioners, 20 June 1673;
• [CP 17]: HCA wrapper.

Ships Papers, numbered SP 1-SP 23:- Following the HCA numbering, though the papers actually include 2 original items numbered as 21 (a bill of lading [SP 21A] and a cargo manifest [SP 21]), plus another unnumbered by the Court [SP 23].

• [SP 1]: Hamburg, 25 June 1672;
• [SP 2]: charterparty for Archangel and Livorno, 1672;
• [SP 3]: Hamburg, 4 July 1672;
• [SP 4-SP 20]: bills of lading and invoices of cargo, etc, Archangel, September 1672;
• [SP 21]: cargo manifest;
• [SP 21A]: bill, Archangel, 28 September 1672;
• [SP 22]: invoice, Archangel, 1672;
• [SP 23]: (German), 29 April 1672 and 4 July 1672.

Extra information: the owners were Jasper Tham (brother of the master), Dedericke Snocke, Sijmon Hocke, John Buijs, Albert Leckeman, Captain Martine Houlsh and Dedricke Peeterson, and the master.