Catalogue description Captured ship: Concordia , Arendt Buck, master. History: Bremen merchant ship bound from...

Captured ship: Concordia, Arendt Buck, master.

History: Bremen merchant ship bound from St Eustatius to Amsterdam laden with sugar, coffee and cotton, captured on 6 April 1758 between Beachy Head and Dungeness by the John & Stephen privateer (Richard Ball, commanding) and taken into Dover.

Documents:

1) Papers of Johan Biesewig (Jan Biesewich, Jean Biesevig, Biesewick) master of Concordia until his death at St Eustatius, 19 November 1757 (in German, Dutch, English and French). Includes some ship’s papers, and some letters received by Biesewig. Also,

• a copy of the Bill of Sale or similar (in German) recording that in 1740, Biesewig bought Concordia (then called Margareta) from two merchants in Eckernförde, Germany (no. 1, 1A);
• Biesewig's journal of Concordia's voyage from Cork to St Eustatius, starting Wednesday 17 August [1757] (no. 2);
• Biesewig's notebook containing accounts, cargo manifest, and journals, 1755-1756 (no. 3);
• certificate of his achieving grade of Master in the Masons (in French) at Bordeaux, 27 October 5750 [1750] (no. 4);
• letters addressed to him in London, Cork and Cadiz in 1757 (nos. 5, 6, 101 to 109);
• various bills and receipts for hats, clothes, food, drink, medicines and surgeons' and doctors' bills, other bills (including crimp's bill); inventory of possessions after death (no. 95).

2) Papers of Arendt Buck, mate and then master of Concordia from 20 November 1757. Includes some ship’s papers:

• Buck's account books for ship at Archangel, Cadiz, London etc. (old Dutch charts of southern Sweden, Bay of Biscay and Levant (Holy Land) used as covers) (nos. 1 to 4);
• Buck's journal (no. 5) and papers found loose among its pages (nos. 6 to 8);
• volume belonging to Buck marked No. 9, containing journal of Concordia on voyages from Bremen to Cadiz in 1756, Cork to St Eustatius in 1757 and St Eustatius to Amsterdam in 1758, along with a few pages of exercises from ‘Schatkamer’ (no. 9);
• assorted bills and receipts (nos. 10 to 21).

3) Papers of Lourens Wretling (Lars Wretling, Lowrenz Wretling) oper stuurman (first mate) of Concordia (in Dutch and Swedish). Includes:

• letters received by Wretling (nos. 19 and 20);
• his journal, 1756, also containing navigational exercises (nos. 1 and 1A);
• two manuscript copies of ‘Schatkamer, of Kunst Der Stuuerlieden’ (nos. 2 and 2A);
• letter, or draft of letter, in Swedish from Carl Friedrik Hassker (no. 3);
• two Swedish poems (nos. 4 and 5);
• several navigational notes fixing the ship's latitude and longitude (in Dutch) signed Lourens Wretling (nos. 6 to 10);
• Wretling's log of a voyage in 1756 in Johanna Catherine Elizabeth, Boset master (no. 18);
• notebooks (nos. 17, 22 to 24) and papers (nos. 11 to 16);
• log of Hollandia (1757) and Concordia (1758) in one volume, marked No. 10 (no. 21) (Wretling was mate of Hollandia, and probably joined Concordia at St Eustatius).

4) Papers of John Hamilton, boatswain of Concordia (in English):

• two notebooks recording death of Captain Biesewig (19 November 1757), Hamilton's promotion to mate, purchase of a book called the Mariner's Compass, etc (nos. 1 and 2);
• Hamilton's log when mate of Concordia, with an account of her capture off Beachy Head, in two volumes (nos. 3 and 4);
• Dutch woodcut of sailor in English hat circa early eighteenth century with jottings on reverse in Hamilton's hand (no. 5).

5) Other assorted papers found in Concordia, including:

• manuscript copy of ‘Schatkamer, of Kunst der Stuurlieden’ (or similar) at one time belonging to Anders Anderson Wijkman, 1709 (no. 1);
• notebook containing a few pages of a log of 1758, a note about finding the Golden Number (‘'Gulden Getaal') and a note about being boarded by an English privateer on 2 April (no.2);
• 1751 almanac (no. 3);
• four notebooks, marked Nos. 1, 2 and 4, and one unnumbered (nos. 4 to 7);
• one 'slate' notebook (no. 8);
• one scrap notebook (no. 9);
• Leipzig Calendar 1754 (printed) with notes (no. 10);
• three papers relating to Swedish seaman Carl Skiögren (Skögren, Sjögren, Kevengren): protection from the press (in English) for a foreigner, June 1757, and two other papers dated February 1758 (nos. 11 to 13);
• invitation to a Masonic meeting (in English) belonging to Caspar Schombart, which may have become mixed up with the Concordia's papers when Schombart acted as interpreter for Arendt Buck (master of Concordia) in the prize court (no. 14);
• copybook of handwriting exercises (no. 15);
• extract from the Resolutions of the Dutch East India Company, 28 September 1756 (printed). Marked No. 36 (no. 16);
• verses in German (no. 17);
• other assorted papers (nos. 18 to 49).