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| Presumed to resemble La Concorde or Queen Anne's Revenge |
APPENDIX VI: April 27, 1718. The Concorde of Names taken and plundered by pirates. ADLA 5 4578 P 56v&s. (3 photocopied sheets).
Nantes Concorde. plundered and taken by the pirates.
From April 27 (1718).
Appeared the sieur François Ernaud, former lieutenant on the ship named La Concorde de Nantes from this port of 200 tons or thereabouts. Said vessel commanded by Pierre Dosset, first captain and which had Charles Baudin as second captain. Said ship armed with 16 guns and 75 crew, belonging to Mr. René Montaudouin and others and of which says Mr. Ernaud the oath taken, he promised and swore to tell the truth.
He told us that his said ship had been loaded with the goods permitted for the coast of Guinea and other French ships and that his said captain took all the expeditions necessary to accomplish their said voyage.
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| Carte de l'Eveshe de Nantes, 1695 |
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| Location of Groix |
He left from the bottom of this river [Loire] on March 24, 1717 and by bad weather they were forced to release under Groix [see map to left] on the 28th of the said month where they anchored around 8 o'clock in the evening and on the 29th following around 9 o'clock in the morning the heavy weather compelled them to slip out their cable at the end and abandon their second anchor weighing about 14 to 1500 pounds and the said cable 12 to 13 inches thick, brand new, never having wetted and 120 fathoms in length. They were thrown onto the Banc des Ecarts where the aforesaid vessel touched with three strokes of its heel.
From there they headed out to sea and came to anchor on the island of Houëdic [Ile d'Hoëdic on map below], on the 29th, where they anchored their large anchor and their brand new 12 to 13 inch cable. On the 30th of the said month they were forced to return to anchor in Mindin. Then what by the diligence they did they covered the cable and anchor above that they had spun under Groix. At Mindin [map below] they repaired there a new cable of 12 to 13 inches from theirs which was damaged. They took food and refreshments to replace those they had consumed. Then they sailed from the said Mindin on the following April 12.
On the 24th of the said month, the named Jean Morel, Provençal sailor [died] without being able to save him...
On June 6, they arrived at Mesurade [Cape Mesurado, aka Cape Montserrado - a headland on the coast of Liberia] to get wood and water from where they left on the 18th of the said month to go to Judah [Whydah or Ouidah] where they anchored on July 8 and at which place they traded and loaded on the said ship the number of 516 heads of blacks of all sexes and ages and fourteen ounces of powdered gold.
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| Plan of Cape Mesurado on Coast of Modern Liberia |
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| Ouidah, Whydah, or Judah on Gold Coast of Africa |
After which they left the said place on the 9th day of October following to go to Martinique and the French islands of America.
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| Map by Baylus C. Brooks |
The following November 28, finding themselves 30 or 40 leagues from Martinique, in the latitude of 14° 30' North, they encountered around 8 o'clock in the morning in foggy weather two pirate boats, one of which was armed with 12 guns and equipped with 120 men of crew and the other armed with 8 guns and equipped with 30 men. The declarant said he had at that time 16 men dead of disease including the one who had drowned and in addition 36 men of their said crew sick with scurvy and blood flow so that they were only 21 men to do the maneuver and steer said vessel. So much so that the said two pirate boats having fired two volleys of cannon and musketry at them and shouted at them to put their boat in the sea. The said captain and officers and members of the crew seeing themselves unable to defend themselves from the said pirates , there came on board the said pirates who took them to Bicoya, Grenadine Islands where the declarant and all the other members of his crew were searched and visited and pillaged and taken from them the elite of their cargo and put the remainder on said Island ashore.
And by the declaration of a servant of his crew who declared to the said pirates that his captain and his officers had gold dust. Seeing this, the said pirates threatened the declarant and his crew to cut off their necks if they did not return the said gold powder. However, as the said waiter belonging to Mr. Martin, clerk on the said ship had declared to them. Which said waiter was named Louis Arrot de Nantes aged 15 or so who voluntarily surrendered with them. This obliged the declarant jointly with the others to deliver to them the said gold powder which everyone had a little in his without understanding the one that was freight and seized all the clothes and clothes having stripped them as well as their said ship with all its guns and gear that said pirates have retained Declares further that the said pirates have retained by force ten men of their crew, namely:
Charles Duval, native of Port-Louis, pilot.
Jean Dubois, Gascon, major surgeon.
Marc Bourgneuf, second surgeon, from Rochelle.
Claude Deshaies, 3rd surgeon.
Esprit Perrin, Master Carpenter, native of Pellerin.
René Duval, 2nd carpenter, native of Nantes.
Jean Puloin, caulker.
Guillaume Creuzet, sailor, native of Brest.
Georges Bardeau, 2nd cook.
Jean Jacques, gunsmith
Moreover a negro who was a trumpet passenger and married at Saint-Malo whose name the declarant does not know further said that four of their said crew, including the waiter mentioned above, voluntarily surrendered to the pirates, to to know:
Nicolas Pommeraye, from Saint-Malo, skipper.
François Derouet from La Rochelle, sailor.
Joseph Mortepan known as La Mornaje, volunteer, from Saint-Père en Retz.
After which the said pirates gave the declarer and the rest of his crew, both sick and healthy, one of their boats to take them to Martinique with the blacks whom the pirates abandoned on the said Ile Bicoya where thirty-two whites and two hundred and forty-six blacks embarked in their boat to pass them to La Martinique where the declarant arrived the following October 7th. Having put the blacks on the ground and given orders for their subsistence and guard. He returned from Martinique on the tenth of this month to the said island of Bicoya to take back there the rest of the blacks that the pirates had abandoned there and where they arrived on the 13th of the said month and at which place they still unloaded in the said pirate boat twelve whites and fifty two blacks to return with the others to La Martinique where they arrived on ... the said month when the captain of the said ship La Concorde, by order of justice, dismissed and paid all his crew from the said blacks. Said more than the boat that the robbers had given them, the justice of Martinique seized it and had it sold at auction for the sum of three thousand nine hundred and fifty pounds or approximately, the justice of which seized until ownership of said boat is claimed by someone.
Said said boat was of Bermudian construction, port of 40 tons or thereabouts.
After which the declarant entered as a passenger together with Pierre Sagory, second pilot, and Pierre Perré, cooper on the ship the Saint-Esprit de Canada which passed them to La Rochelle where they disembarked on the 5th of the present month and we has requested, wishing to have this declaration verified by the above-named gentlemen On the said vessel Concorde whom he has summoned and to whom, having read this declaration.
The number of 15 men, not including the drowned man above Pierre Fortier, 2nd lieutenant, native of Audierne, who died on the crossing[:]
Joseph Dupuy, des Sables, ensign,
Louis Despiose. pilot,
Jean Coupard, cooper,
Pierre Perron, rooster,
François Nestier, baker,
Jacques Carré, sailor,
Pierre Lemoyne, cooper
Guillaume Guillonet, sailor.
Francois Lombard, bosun [bossman, a ship's officer in charge of equipment and the crew]
Jacques Gauthier, sailor.
Peter Lambert,
Jacques Bosseau
Fleury. ...
René Roulet, cook.
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APPENDIX VII: April 27, 1718. Verification La Concorde. ADLA B 4578 f° 90v & s.. (2 photocopied sheets).
Verification and addition of the declaration of Ernaut lieutenant for La Concorde looted and taken by pirates.
Appeared the Sieur Pierre Dosset of Nantes, former master and commander of the ship named La Concorde de Nantes, of the port of 200 tons or approximately, armed with 14 guns and equipped with 72 men all included by the Sieur René Montaudouin, bourgeois and owner of that vessel.
From which said captain the oath taken with a raised hand he swore to tell the truth and to which after having read to him the declaration made by Mr. François Ernaud, his first lieutenant on his said ship La Concorde dated April 27, he recognized this sincere and true.
He only wishes to add that when he had the misfortune to be captured by the pirate ships mentioned in the above dated statement, the declarant said he had then on board the number of 455 heads of blacks of all sexes and ages, 61 blacks having died during the crossing Which together make 516 heads that he had in the said place of Judah.
Said to have ordered Charles Baudin, his second lieutenant on the said vessel, to take five pounds of gold powder from Mr. Turgot, lieutenant on the vessel Le Ruby de Saint-Malo, which the said Bardieu handed over to him declaring and that the said gold powder was taken and looted by the pirates together with thirteen pounds six ounces belonging half and half to the Dosset and Martin sirs and friends.
In addition fourteen ounces belonging to the cargo of the said ship and another eight ounces belonging to Pierre Sagory, 2nd pilot, plus three ounces belonging to Mr. Moret for 3 ounces of brandy he had entrusted to him, plus two ounces belonging to Pierre Fauquéres, first ensign on the said ship that he had found in his trunk after his death, while making the inventory and sale of his clothes, the said death preceding the said actions of the pirates.
Said further that the said pirates would have embarked sixty blacks in the boat of Henri St Amour which was found in La Grenade stranded on the quay. Which declaring to him declared to send fifteen blacks that he claimed in Martinique having recognized them by the mark of the ship. All of which blacks joined together have produced according to the account provided by the declarant to his citizens and shipowners the sum of one hundred and sixteen thousand nine hundred and sixty five pounds ten sols.
In addition said to have received only the sum of 3600 pounds for the sale of the pirate boat which was sold at auction by the Ministry of Justice whatever it is by the declaration of Mr. Ernaud. that it had been sold 3950 pounds having been reduced by judicial authority by the sum of 350 pounds for a cable purchased by court order from Mr. Estyefore, merchant in Saint-Pierre de La Martinique. In addition, he was found for the sum of 737 pounds of cocoa, and for 62 pounds of casks and a copper cauldron sold for 212 pounds, plus 600 pounds for two negroes who had been stolen from them by Spaniards and who declared her recovered. All the sums joined are that of one hundred and nineteen thousand and twenty-six livres ten sols. Out of which sum he was compelled to pay 8926 livres 17 sols for commission, and besides for wages of the crew eleven thousand three hundred and ninety eight livres, ten sols and for other expenses made by him declaring the sum of 7554 livres. Said furthermore to have left the net from the said boat in hard cash in the hands of Mr. Georges Prevost, merchant in Martinique, who granted a receipt to the declarant in the event of a claim from the said boat.
This is the declaration which he read to him, he swore to be sincere, persisted in it and signed
DOSSET
In margins:
The 61 negroes sold in Grenada produced 12,200 pounds, that of the number of blacks who were brought to Martinique, there are 56 exhausted (?) at 125 pounds each The total of blacks .... Claimed se rises to 376, of which six belong to the officers of the said vessel and 20 who died en route from Bicoya and to Martinique during the sale. 350 blacks remain which have been sold Deduct from 455 There is a loss of 105 blacks since the capture of the said vessel.
DOSSET
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