Captured ship: Madonna de Carmine or Madonna de Carmina of Marseille (master Henri...

Captured ship: Madonna de Carmine or Madonna de Carmina of Marseille (master Henri Boisson).

History: a French ship (270 tons, 12 guns, 70 men); taken in fight on 30 July/9 August 1696 off Limassol, Cyprus by the privateer Charles (Charles Pickering commanding), and brought into Larnaca. Following a complaint from the Levant Company that the ship was seized in violation of their agreements with Ottoman Emperor Mahmud I and would provoke reprisals, the vessel was seized on the orders of the English Consul at Larnaca under a letters patent issued by the High Court of Admiralty, and the ship was then taken to Livorno.

Documents:

Court Papers numbered CP 1-CP 16:

• [CP 1-CP 2]: two attestations on behalf of the Levant Company, stating that the capture of the ship so close to Limassol Castle would displease the Ottoman Emperor;
• [CP 3-CP 10]: proceedings taken at Livorno following the issuing of the letters patent, comprising three certificates in Italian relating to the ship's capture and subsequent seizure at Larnaca, two with translations, each supporting the case of the Levant Company, and two letters from John Burrow, English Consul at Livorno concerning court summons issued to Pickering who was almost killed in the fight to capture the ship;
• [CP 11-CP 13]: further proceedings taken at Livorno advancing Pickering's case, comprising an examination in Italian, with translation, and a letter from Rigby Shephard supporting the English captain; the position of Pickering was that the French ship fired first and that as a result he lost 17 men in the fighting; the letter mentions a separate set of statements given by Turkish witnesses sent to England by Lord Paget, Ambassador at Cyprus [not here];
• [CP 14-CP 16]: three allegations.

[Decision: not yet known]