Captured ship: St Katherine of Bruges, otherwise Sint Catalina , Santa Catalina (master...

Captured ship: St Katherine of Bruges, otherwise Sint Catalina, Santa Catalina (master Jan de Vogelaer otherwise John Fowler, Vooghelaer).

History: a Flemish (Spanish Netherlands) merchant ship (80 tons, 6 men, 3 Dutch passengers (the commander and lieutenant of the privateer Flushing (properly Vlissingen ) of Flushing, and the master of the privateer Kittle [Kettle or Ketel] of Flushing), 7 English passengers (5 men and 2 women), built at Vlaardingen near Rotterdam, bought at Rotterdam in November 1671), bound from Bilbao to Ostend and Bruges, laden with iron bars, Spanish wool, sea coals, and 52 sealed bags of silver money stowed under the ship's bread, plus some plate sewn up in canvas [apparently hidden by the privateer passengers]; taken [after 13/23 February and before 24 February/6 March] 1672/3 by the privateer Dover Castle (Henry Sturt commanding), and brought first into Dover, and then to London. Two days before the ship was taken, she was stopped and cleared by a French warship. At that time, some of the English passengers saw the Dutch privateer lieutenant passenger throw a packet of papers into the sea, weighted with hand spikes. The Dutch privateer commander aboard as a passenger was Arian Williamson of Flushing, otherwise Aaert Willemsen.

Court Papers, numbered CP 1-45:-

• [CP 1]: special interrogatories;
• [CP 2]: nine examinations taken at Dover, 24 February 1672/3;
• [CP 3]: [wanting];
• [CP 4-4A]: affidavit of van Saceghem, Ghent, with certification of bill of sale and seabrief (14 November 1671), 26 April 1673;
• [CP5]: translation of CP 4;
• [CP 6]: translation of bill of sale and Bruges certification, 7 April 1673;
• [CP 7-7A]: affidavit of van Biesthoven, Antwerp, 15 April 1673; and affidavit of Stalpaert and de Smidt, Bruges, 2 May 1673;
• [CP 8]: list of claims (Guyott, Bilbao; Charle, Antwerp; Marines, Antwerp);
• [CP 9]: list of claims (Cattoor et al, Bruges; Mas/Mal, Lille/Rijsel; Gansacker, Antwerp; Sayone, Bruges) annotated 21 March 1672/3;
• [CP 10]: list of claims (Cock, Antwerp; de Backer, Antwerp) 21 March 1672/3;
• [CP 11]: list of claims (Staelpaert and de Smidt, Bruges; de Vogelaer) annotated 21 March 1672/3;
• [CP12]: list of claims (Guyott, Bilbao; Charles, Antwerp) annotated 23 March 1672/3;
• [CP 13]: list of claims (Ajones, Segovia) 27 March 1672/3, with note of claim for the ship House of Austria;
• [CP 14]: claim (de Surmont, Tournai), 9 April 1673;
• [CP15]: list of claims (de la Plancque, Lille/Rijsel; bishop of Amiens?) annotated 9 April 1673;
• [CP 16]: affidavit and manifest, with certification, Bilbao, 24 March 1673;
• [CP 17-CP 26]: from Charle, Antwerp;
• [CP 27-27A]: from Sayoen, Bruges;
• [CP 28-CP 30]: from Mas, Lille;
• [CP 31-CP 33]: from van Ryckegem, Ghent;
• [CP 34]: from Hoye, Ostend;
• [CP 35]: from de Surmont, Tournai;
• [CP 36-CP 37]: from de la Plancque, Lille;
• [CP 38-38A]: from de Schot;
• [CP 39-CP 40]: from de Bacquer, Cocq and van de Doncq, Antwerp;
• [CP 41-CP 42]: miscellaneous court notes;
• [CP 43]: order of King and Council, 6 August 1673/4;
• [CP 44-CP 45]: from Hamay, Artur, and Peronne, St Malo;
• [SP 130 - not a ship's paper but CP]: copies of proceedings taken in Spain and Flanders, commissions, interrogatories, exhibits and evidence, and translations; in support of claims of Spanish and Flemish merchants, owners of the cargo of the St Catherine, against Captain Henry Sturt of the privateer Dover Castle. Claimants include Juan de Sesumaga of Bilbao, a great trader in wool; Tomas Melendez Ajones of Segovia, a great producer of wool; Jacob De Barquer and Solomon Cock merchants of Antwerp; Francisco Guyot, Balthazar Charle, Nicholas De Vos, Peter De Vos, John Baptista De Vos and John Marines resident in Bilbao; John Stalpert of Bruges; Arnold Fulgrave or Vulgraven; Toussaint Mas merchant of Lille; and others.

Ships Papers, numbered SP 1-11, 20, 38-39, 75, 79-81, 88, 90-123 [the missing papers may have been restored]:-

• SP 1-SP 11: fragments of an unbound booklet;
• SP 20: letter;
• SP 38-SP 39: rough cargo manifests;
• SP 75: letter;
• SP 79-81, SP 88: letters;
• SP 90-123: mostly bills of lading.

Extra information:-

• Much detail of the court processes is given in IND 1/9012 ff.46v-47;
• See also HCA 32/3, for two large sets of claims, with more details of the claimants;
• See also the two very long and detailed allegations and claims at HCA 24/147/41 and HCA 24/147/42;
• HCA 30/882 p. 60: 125 ship's papers were delivered to the Court, 23 July 1673;
• See also HCA 30/228, which is allegedly letters to Batavia and to Bruges, from this ship: [in process of sorting, as the Batavia letters seem to be in the wrong place.]
• The owner of the privateer Dover Castle was John Strode, Lieutenant-Governor of Dover Castle.