Catalogue description CAPTAINS' LETTERS - SURNAMES I-Q

These reports from captains are arranged by the initial letters of their surnames. They include officers at sea and reporting independently, those employed ashore (for example on the Impress Service) and those on half-pay. Officers at sea not detached from the flag or under private orders normally reported to their commander-in-chief, who would summarise or enclose these reports with his own.

`Captains' in this context is to be understood in its eighteenth-century sense: these are officers of the rank of post-captain or master and commander (but not lieutenants in command). Commodores, especially those who flew their broad pendants for only a short time, are often treated as Captains.

The earliest volumes (to c.1705) also include some letters from Commissioners and Masters Attendant of dockyards, commanders of privateers and merchantmen, and from acting-captains of H.M. ships.

When using the ADM 12 indexes to search for papers in ADM 1, documents in this sub-sub-series have the following references: 'Cap I', 'Cap J' etc.