Lost & found

Lost & found

The „Prize Papers” at The National Archives in London offer many fascinating and – time and again – surprising finds. For those to whom they belonged or for whom they were intended, they meant a loss two to three centuries ago. A selection of intriguing items.

Small keepsakes were often sent together with letters to family members and loved ones. Silhouette portraits conveyed an impression to those far away of how the faces of relatives or friends were changing over time. In 1780, these silhouettes were sent with a letter from C.L. Scheitz from Steinberg near Flensburg to his brother in Cochin, India. Photo: The National Archives, Ref. HCA 30/722
Pandemic prevention almost three centuries years ago: a document in which officials of the city of Marseille certify to Captain Jacques Chermazin and his crew that the city’s port was "free from any suspicion of plague or other contagious diseases" upon their departure in February 1747, and request that other authorities therefore give the ship free passage on its way to the then French colony of Saint-Domingue in modern-day Haiti. Photo: The National Archives, Ref. HCA 32/94
Keys can often be found among the Prize Papers collection. They locked ship's lockers or private boxes. Photo: The National Archives, Ref. HCA 65
Playing cards were often found among the seafarers' belongings - but they were not only used for playing, but for various purposes, for example as business cards or promissory notes. Photo: The National Archives, Ref. HCA 32/139/27
The researchers have so far identified 19 languages in documents of the Prize Papers collection. This letter is written in Burmese. Photo: The National Archives, Ref. HCA 30/669
Bundles of correspondence like this one dating back to 1757, in which a letter contained several other letters, are among the fascinating discoveries in the collection. Letters were often packed together like this for practical reasons, such as to save money on postage, or when several sailors from the same hometown sent messages to their families. Sometimes they were bundled for tactical reasons, with the outermost letter giving instructions for passing on or withholding the documents inside. Photo: The National Archives, Ref. HCA 32/249/11
In the Prize Papers collection, the researchers also discovered a lost volume of six sonatas for two violins by Jean-Laurent Chevalier de Suffren. These are dedicated to a count, the Comte de Grouchet; the two men were distantly related, friends and later business partners. When the composition was written, de Suffren was stationed as a vice lieutenant in the then French colony of Saint Domingue - now Haiti. The sheet music is accompanied by a letter from the count to his wife. Grouchet wrote: "We make music constantly", and he asks his wife in Paris to let have the sonatas played for her. If she liked them, he asked her to send money for the composer de Suffren. He may have helped compose them himself, for he writes: "You will recognise me in the composition." The violin duets were premiered at the ceremonial launch of the Prize Papers project in 2018. Photo: Haasis
In the 17th and 18th centuries, glass beads made in Europe were a popular means of payment and exchange in Africa, and millions of them exchanged hands within the slave trade. In 1803, J.A. de Marrée, a Dutch official, sent the bead necklaces pictured above from Elmina in present-day Ghana - at that time a hub of trade in enslaved people - to Amsterdam, a centre of glass bead production at the time, as a sample for ordering further supplies. Photo: The National Archives, Ref. HCA 32/996
This sketch and colourful original drawing of the ship "Geetruide" with English flag on a sheet of paper dates from 1796. Photos: The National Archives, Ref. HCA 32/872
The "Improved Rarities Almanac from Bremen and Verden" was found in a captain's archive originating from aboard the "Jungfrau Maria" ("Virgin Mary") captured in 1746. Photo: The National Archives, Ref. HCA 32/119/21
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