No 30. Captured ship: Hope or Hoop of Ostend (master Jan de Laine of Dunkirk (resident...

No 30.

Captured ship: Hope or Hoop of Ostend (master Jan de Laine of Dunkirk (resident of Ostend), otherwise De Laanse, Laenje).

History: a Flemish (Spanish Netherlands) fishing vessel (hooker or dogger, 28 lasts, 13-14 men; formerly Hoop [Hope] of [Zierikzee?], bought at Ostend on 10/20 March 1672/1673 (brought there from Zierikzee about 1 month before)), bound on a fishing voyage for cod, laden with cod, ling, herring, salt and 350 live fish; taken on 26 April/6 May 1673 by the privateer Norfolk (John Sparrow commanding) and brought into Leith, Scotland.

Allegation and claim, 12 August 1673, of Peter Bauwens, Jacob van der Mersch, Roger Bauwens and Daniel Camels, subjects of the King of Spain, enclosing 2 schedules numbered 1; translation of the ship's inventory. (The Dutch original is missing.) and 2: an account in English of the value each of the items in the inventory.

The Hope, a fishing vessel lying in port at Ostend 6/16-8/18 March 1673, and for some weeks before, was bought on 8/18 March by Peter Bauwens and Jaques van der Mersch for all 4 claimants at public sale at Ostend from owner Peter Peterson, auctioneer Daniel de Witt, as per the ship's inventory. John de Laenie (otherwise Lanie) was made master the same day. Details of 2 fishing voyages to the Scottish coast for cod. Arrived there on 20/30-21/31 March 1673 about 12 leagues off Leith and continued there for a month, returning to Ostend on 12/22-14/24 April 1673. Ship set out again as before, leaving Ostend 16/26 April, arrived as before 22 April/2 May-23 April/3 May, catching cod and herring.

Date of capture given as 29 April/9 May 1673. Master and crew kept 9 days before being examined and were denied pen and paper during that time. Dutch crew were hired at Ostend for their superior skills to those of other nations. The 4 owners were all born in Flanders, except Camels, a Scot by birth (now a naturalised subject of Spain), and are all citizens of Ostend (except Van der Mersch, citizen of Nieuwpoort). De Laenie, aged 43, was born at Dunkirk (then in the Spanish Netherlands) and is a citizen of Ostend.

Extra information: see the court process at HCA 32/1948/6.