As part of my PhD research, I went to the Bodleian Library to look at the Rawlinson Manuscripts, and in particular Samuel Pepys’ papers. I would go for a day, spent 5 or 6 hours in the archive, and take something like 1500 photos at a time. There was a lot of really brilliant stuff that I did actually use in my PhD thesis, for example a 1676 letter from George Legge (later, Admiral and Lord Dartmouth). There were a lot of other documents that I thought “oh this looks cool”, but I never ended up using. Today’s document is one example. From Rawl Mss A/187, it is “A List of the shipps of Warr belonging to Algiers”, and is in fact a list of warships at Algiers from 2 October 1676.
Bodleian, Rawl Mss A187 f276
Bodleian, Rawl Mss A187 f277
This document followed the text of a draft peace treaty between England and Algiers in 1676.And it signed S Martin- in deed there was a Samuel Martin who was the English consul at Algiers from 1673 to his death, roughly 1680. 1
This is a fascinating document- and certainly one that- if I can get better photos of it, I’d love to add to this website as a companion to the ADM 8 database. I definitely think that there’s some overlap between the ships captured from Algiers and listed in ADM 8 and the ships on this list. Further, I find the way they are described fascinating- for example that descriptions of the stern decorations are included. I also think that the translation of the ships’ names certainly bears further study.
References
Many thanks for your interesting post about the 1676 Algerine ship list from the Bodleian. I’m glad to find that someone else is interested in the topic. 17th- and early 18th-century Algerine ship lists are a little-explored field, but you might like to pick up on my article from the mid-Noughties: “What’s in a name?: Some Algerine fleet lists (1686-1714) from British libraries and archives”, The Maghreb Review, 31/1-2 (2006), pp. 103-128, reprinted in my The Ottoman World, the Mediterranean and North Africa, 1660-1760 (Farnborough: Ashgate Variorum, 2013), § IX.
All best wishes, Colin Heywood (Maritime Historical Studies Centre, University of Hull)
Hi Colin,
thanks so much. Steve Garnett (another staff member here) is working on State Papers on that topic, and he’ll be following with another blog post soon. Also, we’d love to have you write a post about your work if you’re interested.