(MARITIME) Testimony of the captain of the American merchant

Sale 2675 - Lot 199

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(MARITIME.) Testimony of the captain of the American merchant sloop Shepherdess, captured by the British during the Napoleonic Wars. 14 manuscript pages in a contemporary clerical hand, 13 x 8 inches, in original wrappers bound with ribbon; minor wear. Bermuda, 12 and 27 January 1795

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On 15 December 1794, the American merchant sloop Shepherdess was heading north from Charleston, SC just a few miles off the coast of Virginia when boarded and captured by two British vessels, HMS Thetis and HMS Cleopatra. Here the master of the Shepherdess, Nathaniel Jenny of Baltimore, recounts how the ship and its cargo of rice was taken to Bermuda, and how the ship was damaged on the rocks there. The only weapons on board the ship had been a musket "for the purpose of shooting birds" which a deserting seaman had absconded with at Charleston; this explained the two pounds of gunpowder on board. His seamen were mostly French and Italian nationals, which may perhaps have triggered British suspicions. Appended are the shorter testimonies of three British naval officers who witnessed the capture.