Two signed autograph letters from a French privateer
2 letters attempting to secure promised payments for the booty of the captured English frigate HMS Liverpool by the French privateer Le Grand Décidé, one addressed to Auguste-Anne de Bergevin, Commissaire principal de Marine in Bordeaux, and the other to the brothers Amédée & Eugene Larrieu in Bordeaux, who sold the booty.
Folio (32.5 x 21 cm) & 4to (19.5 x 20.5 cm). Two signed autograph letters in dark brown ink on paper (1 laid, watermarked B Dumas; 1 wove, with no watermark). (2), (2 blank); (2), (2 blank) pp.
€ 1,750.00
Two signed autograph letters by Jacques René Pleuc (or possibly Pleve: some letters in his handwriting are ambiguous, but it does not seem to be Cleve or Fleuc), officer of the infamous French 18-gun privateer Le Grand Décidé which had been operating out of Bordeaux since 1799 under its captain Duchesne Lasalle for its owner Pierre Leleu. With the capture of the English frigate Liverpool off the coast of Brittany near Brest around November 1819 Jacques René was made Capitaine de Prise giving him responsibility for the captured ship. In the first letter, seven months later, he writes to Auguste-Anne Bergevin (1753-1831) the relevant authority at Bordeaux, complaining that Leleu has still not paid the promised share of the proceeds from the sale of the booty, which was carried out by the brothers Amédée and (Joseph?) Eugène Larrieu in Bordeaux, perhaps the uncle and father of the politician Amédée Larrieu (1807-1873). He hopes they will relieve the "malheureux en souffrance depuis trop longtems" of the crew. The second letter is addressed to the Larrieu brothers nearly a year after the capture, still trying to secure payment, referring to the earlier letter and naming the ship and the amount of money (5000 francs), not noted in the first letter. The first letter is addressed on the otherwise blank final page. The first letter somewhat tattered at the head with the loss of parts of 3 or 4 words, the second has had its margins trimmed (with no loss) and both were formerly folded for sending. Both are in good condition. A fascinating primary source providing a window into the logistics and finance of a privateering venture.
