State Library of NSW Search - Manuscripts, Oral History, and Pictures Catalogue

Record Details

Back to Search Results



		Creator		Bodie, Alexander
		Title		Three letters of marque addressed to Captain Alexander Bodie of the ship Frederick, with a contemporary legal manuscript relating to the same voyage, 1810-1813
		Level of Description		Collection
		Date of Work		1810-1813
		Type of Material		Textual Records
		Call Number		MLMSS 9367 / BOX 1X
		Physical Description		1 outsize box
		Administrative / Biographical Note		Letters of marque were issued by the Admiralty to authorise merchant captains (privateers) to attack and capture enemy vessels and bring them before admiralty courts for condemnation and sale. The Frederick first arrived in Sydney on 20 October 1810, but Captain Bodie was showing signs of mental instability such that at the specific request of Governor Macquarie he was examined by three surgeons, and deemed to be 'labouring under serious mental derangement, which renders him incapable of performing the duties of the situation'. Bodie died alongside his brother when the Frederick was attacked by a French frigate.
		Contents		Three letters of marque authorising Captain Alexander Bodie of the ship the Frederick, to capture and claim ships of respectively French, Dutch and American origin. The French and Dutch letters of marque are dated May 1810 and would have been issued to be carried with Bodie on board for the voyage to New South Wales. The third letter of marque against America is dated October 1812, before the Frederick had returned to England. War had been declared between the United States and England in June 1812, the Admiralty must have seen fit to issue this documents of this type in absentia to captains of ships already carrying paperwork as a privateer. Each letter has an engraved ornamental headpiece and text with one letter retaining remnants of a large seal. The legal manuscript is a lengthy legal brief relating to a mutiny on board the Frederick in 1812, the last in a series of outrages that had seen Alexander Bodie locked up for insanity whilst in Port Jackson. It details a case being mounted by 11 sailors who had been put ashore in Sri Lanka by Bodie on the return voyage in 1812, accused of mutiny. The manuscript begins with a detailed explanation of the contracts of the crew before going into detail about the alleged mutiny, including passages from Bodie's journal they 'threatened me as master of the ship and went below threatening the life of me or any one that should oppose them ... on seeing the ship in such distress, I sent for a stronger force from the shore and the mutineers were taken on shore before the commandant ...". The manuscript concludes with briefs by two lawyers. One, dated 24 July, 1813 was by the later Lord Chief Justice Charles Abbott, who was a maritime expert. The second dated 26 August 1813, was by Samuel Shepherd, later Attorney General for England. Neither gave the crew much chance of recouping their wages.
		Source		Purchased from Hordern House, September 2012


		Copying Conditions		Copyright status: - In copyright May be copied for research and study purposes
		Name		Frederick (Ship)
		Subject		Letters of marque Mutiny. Privateering