The sea rovers of Cherbourg, 1748

Cherbourg was a den of dangerous corsairs and sea rovers in April 1748, as Captain Etienne Mourant of the Expedition and his passengers found out to their cost. From the Derby Mercury

Extract of a Letter from Southampton, April 18. Captain Stephen Mourant, Sen., late Master of the Expedition of Guernsey, being on a Voyage from Portsmouth and this Port for the said Island, with Prize-Wine, Malt, and other Goods, having on board also seven Men and five Women Passengers, was on the 21st of January last past, about eleven Leagues from the South-West Part of the Isle of Wight, taken by a French Dogger Privateer of Dieppe, of six Guns and fifty Men, commanded by Nicholas Bazille, and was carried into Cherburgh the 23d Ditto; from whence he arrived at Guernsey in a Cartel Ship the 27th ult. and is now at this Port. The Master declares, that the said Bazille used him and the Passengers A-la-mode de Paris, till they arrived under the Fort of Cherburgh; (which he imagines was owing to the Fear with which Bazille was possess'd, of being himself taken by an English Man of War or Privateer) but then he ordered his Second Lieutenant, and the Prize-Master, to strip the Crew of the Prize, as also the Passengers; which they immediately put in Execution, by taking the Money from all the Prisoners; from the Men their Cloaths, even to the Skin, and the Women to their Shifts, returning them some few of their worst Apparel, only enough just to cover their Nakedness, that the Men might not so fully represent our first Father Adam, and the Women our good old Mother Eve.

The said Master further declares, that there are at present sixteen Privateers, from one Gun to sixteen, fitted out at Calais, Dunkirk, Bologne, Havre-de- Grace, and Dieppe, whose Rendezvous is at Cherburgh; and that during the Time he was under Confinement there, four, and sometimes five of the said Privateers, have sailed out of the said Harbour every forty-eight Hours: And as he was informed, and verily believes, their Cruize was between Cherburgh and the Isle of Wight; except by Chance, occasioned by Wind or Weather, they may cruize down the Channel as far as the Caskets. The said Master further saith, that the said Privateers' Crews in general tremble at the Name of the Jamaica Sloop; and that if one or two Sloops of War Were stationed to cruize between the Isle of Wight and Cherburgh, and sometimes as far as the Caskets, they must inevitably ruin this Swarm of small Gascoign Rovers.