Captured ship: Grape of Stralsund (master Bartholomew Packman). History: a Swedish...

Captured ship: Grape of Stralsund (master Bartholomew Packman).

History: a Swedish merchant ship, bound from Amsterdam to London laden with pantiles; taken about 12/22 June 1672 by an unnamed warship (commander also unnamed) [HMS Eaglet, George Spilsby commanding: see below] and brought into Great Yarmouth by 12/22 June 1672. The crew were beaten and robbed; the ship plundered. The local agent at Yarmouth confirmed that the ship's documents were in order and wrote 'I spoke with the Captain and cannot see cause for the bringing of her in'. He also gave the captor as 'a yatch [sic] belonging to his Highness Prince Rupert.'

Court Papers, numbered CP 1:-

• [CP 1]: depositions of Peter Splitt and John Croger, co-owners, London merchants, 19 July 1672 [examinations were made after the capture and the papers sent to London, but these documents are said here to have been lost].

Extra information:-

• See Calendar of State Papers Domestic 1672, p.212: SP 29/311, no. 103 (Richard Bower to Williamson, 12 June 1672); the ship had been previously cleared at Gravesend when outbound from London to Amsterdam in April 1672.
• [The captor is given elsewhere as 'the Eagle frigate', and the prize as restored by order of 20 July 1672. See IND 9012, f.30. The captor thus may be the ketch HMS Eaglet, which had been leased to Rupert in 1668-1669, and was commanded by George Spilsby in the North Sea, 1672-1674. See British Warships in the Age of Sail, p.214.];
• Owners: Peter Splitt, otherwise Splidt, and John Croger, London merchants; plus Jergon Barteles, Jacob Mathewson, Jacob van Stuepen, Ernestius Sellyns, John van Essen, Christopher van Essen, the widow Stuepman, and Bartholomew Packman, all Swedish; and Peter Fisher of Konigsberg, Brandenburger.