Catalogue description Captured ship: O Vas de Lisboa otherwise O Vaz de Lisboa (masters Jose Carvalho or...

Captured ship: O Vas de Lisboa otherwise O Vaz de Lisboa (masters Jose Carvalho or Caravallo, and John Davies).

History: a Portuguese ship (55 tons, 8 men - 7 Portuguese, 1 Welshman and 1 Irish boy), bound from Sanlucar to Amsterdam (previous voyage Dublin, Ireland to Cadiz), now laden with brandy; taken on 6/17 May 1748 off the Isle of Wight by the privateer Cambridge (Henry Cooper commanding), and brought into Dover.

Documents:-

Court Papers:

• [CP 1-CP 6]: standing interrogatories, four examinations taken at Dover of:
  • 2) Jose Carvalho, of Porto and Brazil;
  • 3) John Davies, of Camarthen, Wales and Dublin;
  • 4) Jose Deas Carvalho, of"Gurin", Portugal, who describes disputes between Caravalho, Davies and the rest of the crew over who was or wanted to be the vessel's master;
  • 5) John Davis a boy, of Dublin;
  and the commissioners' affidavit;
• [CP 7-CP 8]: interrogatories to be administered to Henry Cooper on behalf of the owner of O Vaz, Elentino Vas Ferreira; and attestations of Henry Cooper relating to the capture without his knowledge of the British declaration ending commerce raiding, given 13 May 1748;
• [CP 9]: attestation and claim of Jose Carvalho, 26 May 1748;
• [CP 10]: claim of Johan Henrich Sentrup of Hamburg for brandy, with translation, brought into court 22 June 1748;
• [CP 11-CP 13]: examinations taken at Dover:
  • 11) standing interrogatories;
  • 12) Jose Carvalho of Porto and Brazil, and Joseph Mauricio, of Terceira, Azores;
  • 13) Johan Francisco, of Lisbon;
  and the comissioners' affidavit, brought into court 29 July 1748;
• [CP 14-CP 15]: two affidavits, one by the translator, Moses Perez, relating to the ownership of the ship's cargo by an Irish Catholic in Spain and the re-examination of witnesses, plus another by John Davis, claiming that O Vas had met with four other privateers on three occasions after setting off from Sanlucar, meeting:
  • first, an unnamed Spanish privateer off the coast of Portugal;
  • second, two English privateers Tyger and Tygress off the Scilly Isles;
  • third, the English privateer Alexander off the Lizard, in which the captain produced specific ship's papers.
• [CP 16a-CP 17b]: declaration by Elentino Vas Ferreira with witness statements, translation, letter in Portuguese from Philip Smith in Cadiz discussing the crew's attempt to buy fruit, with translation, brought into court 3 November 1748;
• [CP 18-CP 19]: attestation of Stephen Tempie or Temple of Dover, relaying a conversation between Caravalho and James Goldfrapp, the ship's prize agent, over wages, in which Carvalho declared that the vessel's cargo was Spanish, plus a further attestation by Alexander Wellard of Dover, asserting that Carvalho admitted lying in his previous depositions, brought into court 3 November 1748;
• [CP 20a-CP 20b]: letter of attorney given by Johan Henrich Sentrup, with translation, brought into court 3 November 1748;
• [CP 21]: allegation, alleging that the ship was carrying Spanish goods, brought into court 3 December 1748;
• [CP 22]: attestation as to the perishing nature of the cargo by James Goldfrapp and Henry Cooper, brought into court 15 December 1748;
• [CP 23-CP 24]: two sets of attestations as to papers, descussing papers found hidden within the lining of a waistcoat and another set found under a pile of 'old sails, old cloths, bread and other things';
• [CP 25-CP 27]: two sets of abstracts and translations of the the 15 sets of ship's papers numbered SP A1-SP A15 and another set of abstracts and translations of the ship's papers numbered SP B1-SP B7.

Ship's Papers numbered SP A1-SP B7:

• [SP A1-SP A4]: bills of lading, ship's pass, bill of health;
• [SP A5/1-SP A5/34]: a packet of papers (Portuguese and English) found sewn inside a waistcoat. Including letters to John Davies (as Juan Davies or Joao do Santo Davies) and Jose or Joseph Carvalho, from Cadiz, Seville and Lisbon, plus loose accounts, invoices, receipts, lists of expenses, rough notes with doodles and blank bills of lading, wrappers;
• [SP A6/1-SP A6/5]: account book owned by Jose Carvalho for 1748, with loose pages from the volume and a loose paper with calculations;
• [SP A6/6-SP A6/9]: book of expenses kept by Eleuterio vas Ferreira, 1746-1748, with loose papers and a loose page;
• [SP A6/10-SP A6/15]: John Davies's book, containing mostly manuscript navigation exercises with illustrations, poetry, notes, songs and rough notes, loose pages with rough notes, all undated;
• [SP A6/16-SP A6/20]: ship's log kept by John Davies between April and May 1748, loose draft pages, rough notes, loose blank pages;
• [SP A6/21-SP A6]: receipts, rough calculations found loose from the above volumes;
• [SP A7]: journal in Portuguese from April to May 1748, unidentified author;
• [SP A8/1-SP A8/4]: three small volumes that belonged to John Davies. Two Gentlemen and Citizens' Almanacks printed in Dublin 1748-8 with additional notes in Portuguese, including addresses, accounts, poetry, calculations and notes, plus Davies's pocket notebook. One further almanac Vox Stellarum for 1743;
• [SP A9-SP A15]: letters, accounts, calculations and doodles;
• [SP B1-SP B7]: bill of exchange, accounts, order relating to butter, receipts.

[Decision: condemned as prize, 20 December 1748]