Catalogue description Captured ship: Le Robuste of La Rochelle, Antoine Damien master. Details: French...

Captured ship: Le Robuste of La Rochelle, Antoine Damien master.

Details: French merchant ship with a cargo of indigo, sugar, coffee and hides, on a voyage from Cap François, Saint-Domingue, to La Rochelle, when captured off Cape Finisterre on 7 October 1756 by the Exeter privateer Hawke, John Hewison commander, and taken into Topsham. She was on the final leg of a voyage which had begun at La Rochelle, carrying brandy, sea-shells and linen to the Guinea Coast, where she picked up 550 slaves for Saint-Domingue, calling at São Tomé for provisions en route. When captured she was in convoy with La Gloire, S Sibeleau master, La Concorde, François Guillot master, and Le Juste, Jean Counil master; La Gloire and La Juste were also taken by the Hawke and other privateers, giving rise to claims for joint capture.

Documents (mostly from Le Robuste, but including some from other ships of the convoy): c 280 personal and business letters (in French) from the French West Indies to France, mainly to La Rochelle, Nantes, Bordeaux and Paris, for onward delivery. Notable items include:

• itemised account of sale of 280 slaves from the Gold Coast transported aboard L'Aimable Jeanne and sold in Saint-Domingue, 1756 (no. 153);
• itemised account of sale of 504 slaves from the Gold Coast transported aboard Le Robuste and sold in Saint-Domingue, 1756 (no. 154);
• papers of Jean Goujaud (Jean Gougeau) second surgeon of Le Robuste (nos. 174, 212 to 215, 289 to 292) including:
  • certificate of competence to serve as surgeon on a merchant ship (no. 289),
  • baptismal certificate, 1729 (no. 213),
  • IOU signed by him (no. 214),
  • invoice dated 1755 (no. 174).
• collected letters (not for onward delivery) of Monsieur Courtableau, either a passenger or an officer in one of the ships, mostly addressed to him when captain of Le Diligence at Quebec, in Martinique and at his father's house in La Rochelle, 1753 to 1754 (nos. 44, 84, 86, 89, 111, 125, 178, 211, 216, 217, 219 to 222, 249, 288, 293 to 312).

See HCA 30/256 and HCA 30/257 for more papers and mail, HCA 32/240/15 for the main collection of ship's papers and court process etc, and HCA 32/197/5 and HCA 32/204/15 for court papers relating to the other ships of the convoy.