Captured ship: Bachelor of Hull [otherwise Batselaar ] (master William Idle, prize...

Captured ship: Bachelor of Hull [otherwise Batselaar] (master William Idle, prize master Adrian van Dort of Flushing).

Capture history: an English merchant ship [owners Richard Medcalfe, John Pickett and others] , later a Dutch naval auxiliary and transport ship [owners the States of Zeeland} (pinnace, 200-260 tons, 6 men when retaken at Cadiz), bound from Virginia and New York to Barbados, laden with tobacco, logwood, fustic (dye wood], deals, pipe staves and other goods; taken first on 31 July/10 August 1673 at [Hell Gate on the East River,] New York by Commodore Cornelis Evertsen the Younger/Youngest [1642-1706]; now bound from New Orange (formerly New York) via Cadiz (a neutral port) to Flushing, laden with sugar, tobacco, logwood, speckle wood, beaver skins and hides on behalf of Cornelis Evertsen and others, convoyed to Cadiz by the naval squadrons of Commodores Evertsen and Jacob Binckes; moored in Cadiz Bay about 3 miles from Cadiz citadel, after Passchier de Witte's naval engagement off Cadiz with Thomas Harman (the Zeeland frigate Schakerloo and HMS Tiger on 23 February/4 March 1673/4), did not move with the other prizes closer to Cadiz citadel; retaken at night [in a revolt against the enemy], about 11 pm on 24 March/3 April 1673/4 (after the treaty ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War) in Cadiz Bay by William Idle, the former master, with his 2 ships servants (all three had been passengers in the ship), in a Spanish boat with 8 more men provided locally by British merchants, and cutting the ship's cables to escape quickly; intercepted on 25 March/4 April 1674 about 20-30 leagues from Cadiz by HMS Falcon (Thomas Gardiner commanding), which on 27 March/6 April supplied Idle with necessary equipment and provisions but otherwise left him to continue his voyage; the ship was brought into Plymouth on the night of 17/27 April 1674 and seized there about 7 am on 18/28 April. Afterwards brought to London [after a second order to that effect, 10 September 1674].

Court Papers, numbered CP 1-40:-

• [CP 1-2]: standing interrogatories (2 sets);
• [CP 3]: (four) examinations at Plymouth, 18 April 1674;
• [CP 4]: copy order of Privy Council, 22 April 1674;
• [CP 5]: (one) examination at Plymouth, 29 April 1674;
• [CP 6-7]: list of ship's equipment and list of provisions etc supplied [by HMS Falcon], 27 March 1674;
• [CP 8]: (Dutch) claim by attorneys of Dutch merchants, Amsterdam, 12 May 1674;
• [CP 9]: translation of above;
• [CP 10-15]: claims;
• [CP 16]: manifest of goods laden at New York for Dutch merchants (read 15 June 1674);
• [CP 17]: manifest of tobacco brought in by Idle (27 June 1674);
• [CP 18]: special interrogatories (Delavall);
• [CP 19]: detailed claim of Thomas Delavall, 23 June 1674 (1 September 1674);
• [CP 20-21]: (2 copies) affidavit of William Idle, 1 July 1674;
• [CP 22]: Anglesey, Carteret and Coventry to Jenkins, 25 July 1674;
• [CP 23]: Anglesey, Carteret and Coventry to Jenkins, 5 September 1674;
• [CP 24]: affidavit of Captain Jacob Binckes, otherwise Benckes, 13 November 1674 (certified by Amsterdam Council, 26 November 1674), also mentioning the ship (buss) Catalina;
• [CP 25]: John Buckham, expenses, 15 November 1674;
• [CP 26]: affidavit of George Glover, 22 December 1674;
• [CP 27-29]: (on thong) commission, 1 December 1674; appraisal, 2 January 1674/5; affidavit of Francis Bridcake and William Shoe (Idle's servants), 23 June 1674;
• [CP 30]: account of freight for goods condemned, 1674;
• [CP 31]: certificate of general freight rates, 10 February 1675;
• [CP 32]: account of expenses, (11 February 1675);
• [CP 33]: letter of Wren and Walker to Jenkins, 24 February 1675;
• [CP 34]: account of proceeds and expenses, (27 February 1675);
• [CP 35]: objections to Idle's accounts, 1 March 1675;
• [CP 36]: (Cooke) objections to Idle's accounts, 27 March 1675;
• [CP 37]: report on examination of Delavall, 28 April 1675;
• [CP 38]: commissioners' expenses, 15 February 1676;
• [CP 39]: cover note for below (undated);
• [CP 39A]: draft report (undated) [after ship's arrival in the Thames; second order to bring ship to London, 10 September 1674];
• [CP 40]: annotated HCA wrapper [see Ship's Papers].

Ships papers numbered SP 1-7: Dutch ships papers, numbered by HCA 1-7, plus annotated HCA wrapper [CP 40 above], all on thong (2 loose).

See also HCA 24/147/6 for several allegations and claims for the cargo loaded at New York.

There is a related Chancery suit of 1678, Idle v Mountford, at C 6/77/62.

HCA 30/882, p.65: mentions 7 papers brought into the Court, 25 April 1674. See also IND 1/9012 ff.7-7v.

See also C. de Waard, De Zeeuwsche expeditie naar de West onder Cornelis Evertsen den Jonge, 1672-1674 (The Hague, 1928), pp.xlii, lviii-lix, 48, 58, 65-66, 125.