High Court of Admiralty. Captured ship: Le Basque of Bordeaux (master Dominique Dascoube),...

High Court of Admiralty.

Captured ship: Le Basque of Bordeaux (master Dominique Dascoube), formerly La Magdalene and other names.

The papers of this case are split between two pieces: see HCA 32/277/7 for the capture history and description of the court papers, which are in that piece. This piece, HCA 30/728, contains the ships papers taken from the prize by the captors. Purely for technical reasons (to circumvent the 8000 character limit on piece/item descriptions that our catalogue imposes on us), the catalogue description of the Ship's Papers has been split between HCA 30/728 and HCA 30/728/1. All the ship's papers are, however, stored together in one sequence without any physical differentiation between piece and item. When citing references in print, or ordering documents, do not cite the item number HCA 30/728/1: to order all or any of the Ship's Papers, order HCA 30/728; to cite a Ship's Paper, whether it is described in HCA 30/728 or HCA 30/728/1, the reference for all Ship's Papers is simply HCA 30/728 plus the SP number. For example: HCA 30/728 SP 7; HCA 30/728 SP 73/7; HCA 30/728 SP [127].

Ships Papers:

• SP 73: a packet of papers, now numbered 0 to 58, inc.:
  • 73/0: wrapper for bundle 73.
  • 73/1: French chart of the entrance to the bar at Ocricoke, North Carolina, scale 1 inch to the nautical mile, 28"x20" approx.
  • 73/2-5: muster of Le Basque; names of deserters; French pass from Saint-Domingue to St Pierre et Miquelon (referred to in examination).
  • 73/6-9: captain's orders, victuals, muster and crew agreement of L'ami de Williamsburg.
  • 73/18-22 : notarised protests etc relating to the taking of L'ami de Williamsburg by Le Scipion of Bordeaux.
  • 73/25: bill of lading.
  • 73/26: highly dubious statement / procès-verbal signed by the officers of Le Basque supposedly accounting for their having turned up at Ocricoke when they were supposed to go to St Pierre et Miquelon.
  • 73/29: receipt for gold coins carried from Bordeaux to Martinique in 1777.
  • 73/30-39: invoices, sales accounts etc.
  • 73/40: account of tobacco on board; on reverse, small faint sketch of a bucolic scene (cottage or mill, stream, trees, duck/swan/dodo).
  • 73/41-45: extraits du greffe de Marinique and Cap François, 1777.
  • 73/46-58: blank printed rôle de l'equipage form, blank printed bill of lading forms (English), misc. jottings, blank paper ruled for accounts.
• SP 74: a packet of assorted papers, including receipts for Dascoube's personal expenses at New Bern, maintenance of the ship, etc, now numbered 0 to 100, inc:
  • 74/0: ship's paper used as wrapper for bundle 74.
  • 74/1: Basque language (found 10 Jan 2025).
  • 74/27-31, 97 (and 73/10): laundry lists.
  • 74/41: muster of L'ami de Williamsburg, Domé captain.
  • 74/44: bill for arrest of three and 5 days imprisonment of two French sailors [at New Bern].
  • 74/45-47, 49-52: papers numbered for the court 45-47 and 49-52, duplicating numbers they had already used, inc:
    • 74/45-46:"hire of negroes" @ 8/- per day.
    • 74/49: receipt for a diamond ring and six pairs of canvas underpants ("caleçons de toile") delivered to Cap Français by Dascoube.
  • 74/57: invoice for pacotille.
  • 74/58, 71: receipt for board and lodging [at New Bern] for Dascoube and his lieutenant (24/- per day, 8/-)."Negro hire" 8/- per day. Several similar.
  • 74/59, 63: receipt for third parties ferrying cargo out to the ship at Ocracoke.
  • 74/76: certificate that Louis Chauvreau was a crewman of Le Comte de St Germain of Bordeaux wrecked on the bar at Ocracoke 21 March 1778. His name is in the muster of Le Basque SP 8.
  • 74/80: bill for costs of a case in the admiralty court at New Bern.
  • 74/82: certificate of names of crew of the snow Le Diamant wrecked on the bar at Ocracoke 29 October 1777. See SP 54. All may be found in the muster of Le Basque SP 8.
  • 74/85: formula for a treatment (balm) for burns:"Compososition d'un excelent beaume pour toute sorte de brulures".
  • 74/98: blank bill of lading forms.
  • 74/99-100: the two blank French passes bought from Tisdale (see HCA 32/277/7).

Note on currency: All the sums of money given in £sd at New Bern relate to the local colonial pound, which evidently equalled 10/- sterling (see SP 74/44).

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Catalogued January 2025.