Catalogue description Captured ship: Santa Catherina or Santa Catharina (master João de Faria Leitão, or Joas...

Captured ship: Santa Catherina or Santa Catharina (master João de Faria Leitão, or Joas de Faria Leitas). Allegedly, formerly the Marie Joseph of Chandanagore.

History: a French merchant ship (200 tons, 12 guns, 49 officers and crew, and about 15 passengers and servants) leased to Armenian merchants from New Julfa, Isfahan, sailing under Portuguese colours, bound from Basra to Bengal, laden with 50 chests of silver zolotas, fruit, dates, almonds, wine and rosewater; taken on 30 April / 11 May 1748 off Negapatam / Nagapattinam by HMS Medway's Prize (William Holmes commanding) (part of Admiral Thomas Griffin's squadron) and taken into Fort St David, near Cuddalore, India.

There were three Armenian passengers on board: Minas de Eliaz, the supercargo; Johannes de Nazar, Minas's clerk and brother-in-law; and Johannes de Gregory, a merchant trading on his own account and for others.

The ship and cargo were sold in India, and with the involvement of the East India Company, the case was brought to the prize court in London, where a claim for part of the cargo was made by Stephen Cogigian (Stepan di Khojijian) on behalf of the Armenian merchants. The High Court of Admiralty found in favour of the claimants on 10 February 1752, but the captors lodged a successful appeal against the sentence, disputing Cogigian's authority to represent the claimants. No claim was made for the ship.

Documents:

The court put the bulk of the papers taken from the ship in four bundles, which they labelled A to D. In addition, there are a small number of papers which have been grouped in three artificial bundles and given the designation E, F and G. This piece, HCA 32/1832, contains Bundles A and B, papers certified by Cogigian not to concern the Santa Catherina or her cargo, and therefore not translated for the court:

• Bundle A, numbered 1 to 1660 (with gaps. There is a list of the 327 missing papers in the box);
• Bundle B, now numbered B1 to B15 (nos. B2, B10 and B12 missing). Includes nine journals in Armenian belonging to Minas de Elias (the supercargo), Johanes de Gregory, Hagaraz di Satur and others unnamed.

HCA 42/25, HCA 42/47/1, HCA 32/1833, HCA 13/91.

Gagan Sood, India and the Islamic Heartlands (CUP 2016)

Sebouh Aslanian, Trade Diaspora versus Colonial State: Armenian Merchants, the English East India Company, and the High Court of Admiralty in London, 1748–1752, Diaspora 13:1 2004,