Catalogue description Captured ship: Die Hoffnung , otherwise De Hoop , L'Ésperance or Hope (master Rieweert...

Captured ship: Die Hoffnung, otherwise De Hoop, L'Ésperance or Hope (master Rieweert Frerecks, owner Nicolas Gottlieb Luetkens or Lütkens).

History: a Hamburg merchant ship (250 tons, previously the English ship L'Upton or Upton taken as prize and bought by Luetkens in France), bound from Brest to Hamburg laden with sugar, coffee, vinegar, butter, linen and beef; taken on 23 August 1745 off Beachy Head by the privateer Charming Molly (Nicholas Craven commanding), and brought into Deal.

Documents: The business archive of the merchant Nicolas Gottlieb Luetkens of Hamburg but resident in Nantes, Bordeaux and Brest, mostly in French, Dutch and German. Lutkens consigned his archive in a chest on his own ship to Hamburg on his decision to re-locate his business there from France, while he travelled home by land.

Luetken's papers, bundles 1-16:-

1. Luetkens' out-letter book May 1744-June 1745, with the out-letters numbered 1-700; 534 pp.

2. A loose set of copied out-letters November 1743-March 1744, not numbered; 62 pp.

3. Another loose set of copied out-letters March-May 1744, letters numbered 1-55; 40 pp.

4. Individual copies of out-letters, 1-15 from 1742-1745, 16-24 undated.

5. 5/1-5/9: lists of correspondents.

6. Book of memorials and accounts, annotated [wrongly] by the court 'Copies of Lettters 1744'; 46 pp.

7. Personal papers of Nicolas Gottlieb Luetkens:-

• 7/1: Personal bill of health from Hamburg, 1744.
• 7/2, and 7/2A-C: Details of lottery purchases.
• 7/3: Book of loans and deposits.
• 7/4: Book of expenses on visiting England, 1738.
• 7/5: Contract with his clerk Schuetze, April 1745.
• 7/6, 7/7: Letters of recommendation to two women in Paris, at whose houses he may stay, 1743, 1744.
• 7/8: Receipt for cheeses bought at the Black-boy in Thames Street, London, Sept 1743.
• 7/9: Receipt.
• 7/10a-d: Four playing cards used as calling cards: an eight and a seven of clubs, four of diamonds and a king of clubs, of an unknown pattern.
• 7/11: Note of postal routes.
• 7/12/1-6 - Notes by Lütkens, with five samples of hemp and linen cloth.
• 7/13: A pass for travel for 2 on the post routes, issued to Christopher Luetkens.
• 7/14-33: Bills and receipts for clothes and for food (7/25 not used in error).
• 7/34: Detailed bill for a post chaise, May 1744.
• 7/35: Estimated costs for sending luggage.
• 7/36: Itinerary for a journey from Nantes to Frankfurt via Bordeaux, Toulouse, Beziers, Marseilles, Lyons and Strasbourg.

8. Printed prices current, French and Dutch numbered 8/1-8/62 (8/8 and 8/18 not used in error).

9. Printed prices current, Hamburg numbered 9/1-9/12.

10. 255 'memorials' (accounts), numbered by Luetkens 12-370, with many gaps and duplicate numbers: now numbered 10/1-225, with several A and B numbers: (the new numbers 220-225 do not have Luetkens numbers). Similar papers may be found in Bundle 16.

11. Bills of exchange numbered 11/1- 58 (1-35, 1742-1745, and 36-55 cropped, no date); and receipts 11/56-58.

12. Printed bills of lading, arranged by name of master, numbered 12/1-98 [96-98 unidentified], 1741-1745.

13. Sales of prize ships:-

• 13/1-13/2 Printed advertisements for the purchase of the prize ship L'Upton of London and its cargo, at Port Louis 5 August 1744 [bought by Luetkens];
• Printed advertisements for the purchase of prize ships and cargo in Spain and France:
  • 13/3 L'Aigle Volant;
  • 13/4 Georges Besty;
  • 13/5 La Plaisance of Bideford;
  • 13/6 La Prosperité;
  • 13/7 Sara de Betfort [incomplete];
  • 13/8 Truelove.
• Manuscript inventories of other prize ships:
  • 13/9 Le Roy de Portugal of Amsterdam;
  • 13/10 St Thomas De Villanueva;
  • 13/11 Pingue Volante;
  • 13/12 Arion;
  • 13/13 La Marmante;
  • 13/14 Margaret and Elizabeth pink;
  • 13/15 La Horean [?];
  • 13/16 Neptune;
  • 13/17 Nuestra Senora Lablanca;
  • 13/18 La Susanna;
  • 13/19 Prosper;
  • 13/20 La Bretaigne;
  • 13/21 La Mediterranée;
  • 13/22 L'Esperance.

14. Miscellanea from the ship Hoffnung (master Frerecks) and from the ship Post van Hamburg (master Paatz), numbered 14/1-14/38 (including 37A and 37B).

15. A small notebook bound in yellow leather, with a pocket, belonging to Rieweert Frerecks, master of Hoffnung recording the wages of the crew (12 men) and other memoranda, with 15A his passport of 5 June 1745 (describing him as small, rosy, blue-eyed, 35, with a blue and white jacket).

16. Miscellaneous business papers, accounts and 'memorials', freight, ship inventories and calculations, 1741-1745 and undated:

• 16/0-16/16, dated 1741;
• 16/17-16/54, dated 1742;
• 16/55-16/70, dated 1743:
• 16/71-16/92,dated 1744:
• 16/93-16/108, dated 1745;
• 16/109-16/146, undated, mostly in Luetkens' hand (16/116B is an annotated playing card found inside 16/116A, a six of hearts);
• 16/147-16/206, undated.

See HCA 30/233 -236 for more Luetkens business papers, HCA 30/659 -660 for volumes of journals belonging to the master, and HCA 32/115/4 for more letters and the main collection of ship's papers and court process etc

Lucas Haasis, The Power of Persuasion. Becoming a Merchant in the 18th Century (2022); Haasis, 'Papier, das nötigt und Zeit, die drängt übereilt. Zur Materialität und Zeitlichkeit von Briefpraxis im 18. Jahrhundert und ihrer Handhabe', pp. 310-324 in Brendecke, Arndt (ed.): Praktiken der Frühen Neuzeit, (2015); Haasis, Noch bleibt mir ein Augenblick Zeit um mich mit Euch zu unterhalten, pp. 87-114 in Freist, Dagmar (ed.) Diskurse-Körper-Artefakte (2015)