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, and a few marked as carried by Le Petit Lion and La Bonté): c 200 personal and business letters (in French) from the French West Indies to La Rochelle, Nantes, Paris and other locations in France, for onward delivery. Includes:

• account of sale of slaves from the Moresse sold at Port-de-Paix, Saint-Domingue, 10 June 1756 (no. 23);
• three letters marked as carried by Le Petit Lion (nos. 225 to 227).
• a letter, not for onward delivery, from Île de France (Mauritius) (no. 22).

See HCA 30/255 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.