Captured ship: Hope or [ L'Espoir ] of La Rochelle (master and prize master unknown)....

Captured ship: Hope or [L'Espoir ] of La Rochelle (master and prize master unknown).

History: a French merchant ship (80 tons, 6 men in prize crew), laden with salt and fish; taken sometime in the 6 weeks before January 1674 off Brest by a Dutch privateer of Flushing (Vlissingen); sailed in company with the captor for 9-10 days and then sent for a Dutch port, but in the morning of 24 December 1673/4 January 1674, having lost all her anchors, was driven aground on the Sussex coast between Broadwater and Ferring; the copy of the privateering commission was seized from the Dutch 6-man prize crew ashore by a local man; capture disputed by various local men.

Documents:-

Court Papers, numbered CP 1-4:

• [CP 1]: commission, 12 February 1673/1674;
• [CP 2]: allegation, 12 February 1673/1674;
• [CP 3]: three examinations taken at Broadwater, 23 February 1673/1674;
• [CP 4]: claim for salvage expenses, 13 March 1673/1674.

Extra information: See IND 1/9012 f.35v: condemned 20 March 1673/1674.