Catalogue description High Court of Admiralty: Prize Court: Records of the Russian (Crimean) War

This series mainly comprises records relating to prize cases in the High Court of Admiralty arising from captures and seizures of enemy or neutral ships during the war with Russia from 1854 to 1855. Naval action took place in the Baltic Sea, the White Sea, the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, and in the Pacific Ocean but suspected vessels were also taken in home waters and seized in home ports. The general location of each action has been included in the description as 'theatre of war'.

The records consist of a wide variety of documents, such as affidavits, eaminations of the captured crew and of the captors, decrees of appraisement and sale, court minutes, abstracts of ships' papers, etc. Occasionally, exhibits, such as ships' logs, have also been preserved.

The records include prize papers, prize appeal papers, returns of Russian vessels captured and condemned, royal warrants, etc.

The miscellanea and miscellaneous administrative papers at the end of the series contains papers relating to a report prepared for the Treasury by the Registrar of the High Court of Admiralty during the Crimean War on the subject of droits of the Crown and of Admiralty during time of war.

For related papers of HM Procurator General among the records of the Treasury Solicitor, see particularly:

Some related records are in HCA 40

TS 10

TS 15

TS 45

High Court of Admiralty, Prize Court, 1660-1875

See Prize Droits by H C Rothery, revised and annotated by E S Roscoe (HMSO, 1915).