Thread by @BrittLonneville

#30DayMapChallenge - day 17: historical map

Let us take you on the epic journey of the Two Brothers in 1757, presented to us through the Prize Papers ⛵

In close collaboration with @stanpnnr

@UkNatArchives @Prize_Papers @jmeesvliz

(1/19)

On 17 October 1757, Pieter Feliers, having received the command of the Two Brothers by his father, proudly leaves the port of Ostend in the Austrian Netherlands to deliver a cargo of flax, salted cod, and a copper tea kettle in the French port of Nantes. (2/19)

With the 28-year-old captain are a crew of 6 fellow Ostenders, among whom his second captain and friend since childhood, Pieter Jaeckx.

🗺️ hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.C…

(3/19)

As soon as the ship enters the Bay of Biscay, however, Feliers’ euphoria over his maiden voyage as a captain quickly fades. A fierce northeastern wind emerges, and leads the Two Brothers all the way to the coast of Spain. (4/19)

On 27 October 1757, the weather clears. Feliers and his crew leave Spanish waters and follow a northern course. Soon, the shores of France are in sight - but what is that steadily approaching sail on the horizon? (5/19)

Privateers! With the Seven Years’ War (1756-63) in full swing, Great Britain and France are eagerly hunting down each other’s merchant vessels. As Austria was allied with France, French privateers were not to be feared, but the British targeted every ship bound to France. (6/19)

Feliers soon finds out the hard way. On 1 November, a Guernsey privateer deceivingly flying a French flag robs Feliers of two barrels of cod, and steals six of the captain’s personal shirts. Nevertheless, the Two Brothers is allowed to continue her journey. (7/19)

Still shaky, the crew arrives at Belle-Île-en-Mer in the wee hours of 4 November. In order to hire a pilot for Nantes, a flag is hoisted to signal to the port town of Locmaria. Hours pass, and soon a whole day, but nothing happens. (8/19)

Out of desperation, Feliers and two of his men decide to row to shore in order to fetch a pilot themselves. They only barely survive the attempt, as violent waves cause the sloop to shatter on Belle-Île’s rocky shores.

📷 Pline, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

(9/19)

At Locmaria, the men learn that it was no lack of alertness that had caused the pilots to stay away, but a plague epidemic that had allegedly broken out in Lisbon. To safeguard the country, Louis XV had swiftly outlawed every contact with ships coming from the south. (10/19)

After getting the necessary paperwork out of the way with the local authorities, Feliers manages to hire a pilot and returns to shore, ready to board his ship and finally set sail to Nantes. But...what ship? The sea is as empty as the sky on a summer’s day. (11/19)

Let’s back up a little bit. On 5 November, one day after Feliers’ departure, a violent storm starts brewing. Eventually, Pieter Jaeckx is forced to raise anchor and leave Belle-Île. At sea, he hails Thomas Pettenhoven, a fellow Ostend captain also heading for Nantes. (12/19)

Both captains decide to travel together, but due to the heavy weather, Jaeckx soon loses sight of Pettenhoven’s vessel. Unable to reach Nantes, he retreats to Île de Ré, to move the Two Brothers to safety.

🗺️ Île de Ré in the Chart of the Road of Basque (1757)

(13/19)

On 13 November, Jaeckx presents himself at the admiralty of neighbouring La Rochelle. There he meets his captain, who was able to get a vessel to Nantes and then travelled to La Rochelle by land. Reunited, nothing prevents the crew of finally reaching Nantes. Right? (14/19)

Nope. Again, fierce headwinds arise. This time the Two Brothers drift all the way to Cape Finisterre. Although the peninsula does not present the end of the known earth, as the Romans believed, it certainly is the end of the crew’s patience.

📷 Cape Finisterre

(15/19)

Grumbling, they ask Feliers to return to Île de Ré to replenish the ship’s bread supply. By now we are well into December, but there’s no sign of the captain giving up. Maybe they can still reach Nantes in time to celebrate Christmas and New Year? (16/19)

Alas, at Île d’Yeu all end-of-the year celebrations are off the table. A privateer approaches and hoists the British flag: this time the captain, Simon Tuff, is not satisfied with a piece of the cargo, and seizes the whole ship. (17/19)

At last, two months after leaving Ostend, the journey of the Two Brothers has come to an end. Not in Nantes, however, but on the island of Guernsey. Probably, the ship is sold, what happens to Feliers and Jaeckx after their eventual release is unclear. (18/19)

In any case, according to the newspaper Gazette van Gendt, not a single ship with Feliers or Jaeckx at the wheel will leave Ostend the following 10 years. Perhaps after their home-coming, the men decided to never set foot on a ship again. Who could blame them? (19/19)