The Wreck of the Jonge Louisa - a gift from the sea

A post from the Balfour Blogger #1:

On 12th February 1785, Pat Hagart, Factor to the Earldom of Orkney, sat down at his desk in Kirkwall and began a two year correspondence with Messrs Jean Texier, ship owners in Amsterdam, which ended with a fraction of the value of their beautiful brigantine and her cargo being delivered to them in January 1787.

Pat Hagart, as representative of the Crown in matters of the sea, had received news of a remarkable event off Deerness, the most easterly parish on mainland Orkney, and had gone to there to investigate.

D5-29-3 Extract of Letter written by Pat Hagart in 1785

In the previous month of 1785, on Sunday 16th January, a brigantine had been found three or four leagues east of Orkney. She was in a desperate condition...and with much difficulty brought to land but without any person aboard. Pat Hagart does not say who had first spotted her, but that seven boats from Deerness went out to the stricken vessel and established that not a single person remained aboard.

Example of an 18th century Brigantine
By John Robinson, George Francis Dow - The Sailing Ships of New England 1607-1907,
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31394623

The brigantine was found at least 11 miles/16.5 kilometres out. It was January, when the weather could be inclement and dangerous, yet someone in Deerness or out at sea to the east saw the vessel and then William Stove of Pickletillum, Robert Stove of Sandside, Andrew Cormack of Netherby, Oliver Craigie of Breck, Edward Ritch of Cutpool, Andrew Skea in Copinsay and Edward Pottinger (probably of Copinsay) set out, with 33 others, at the oars of seven boats to see what was afoot.

What they found was the Jonge Louisa, the wreck of a beautiful ship, minus one of her masts and no-one answering the Deerness men when they hailed her. Somehow the men boarded her and with much difficulty brought [her] to land.

A Brigantine Caught on a Lee Shore Painting by Richard Henry Nibbs

It is not clear where the Jonge Louisa was brought to; probably first to the island of Copinsay and subsequently to Sandside on the east coast of Deerness. Pat Hagart describes her in his letter on 9th April 1785 as being in an unfavourable situation. In November 1785 Thomas Balfour, on behalf of his brother John Balfour, owner of Copinsay, was claiming salvage on the Jonge Louisa. This suggests she was moored off Copinsay, or on Copinsay, at some time. Thomas also writes of bringing her into Sandside.

The excitement and speculation in Deerness must have been enormous. The men who brought her in were all from the east side of the parish. They were experienced seamen, the workforce of a peninsula that is almost an island, living by a combination of the land and the sea. Life was not easy in 1785. High numbers of young men were leaving Orkney to join the British Army, the Royal Navy or to go to the Nor Wast to work for the Hudson Bay Company in Canada. But that January Deerness fielded 40 men to rescue the Jonge Louisa. The possibilities for advantage from saving her were considerable and the news of her discovery will, no doubt, have travelled throughout the parish quickly.

Imagine the news spreading around Deerness from house to house in a place where many people were close family to one another and a community of neighbours and friends. There would have been amazement, a need to hear about how she had been brought in, and, much more importantly, what might be salvageable from her. Was there a cargo? What was it? In what condition? What about the outfitting of the ship? What about the crew's possessions? What was re-usable? Sails, ropes? Endless possibilities. And last, but not least, what had happened to her luckless crew?

Imagine too all the discussion by the men of the parish on what to do next. Inspection of the hold showed she carried iron and thousands of planks of wood (deals). Whilst the deals were manna from heaven to Deerness, the iron was a problem, to know how to process it and disappear it into the community, as was the ship herself. The decision must therefore have been made, probably reluctantly, to let the Crown's representative in Orkney, Pat Hagart, know of the Jonge Louisa's rescue and also Thomas Balfour, representative of one of the main landowners in Deerness.

The news of the ship's arrival appears to have taken some time to reach Pat Hagart. Note the Jonge Louisa's arrival on the 16th January and that Pat Hagart's letter is not written until the 12th February. In his letter to Amsterdam, Hagart advises that he found the ship to be load with Deals [and] iron, but strip'd of every thing that could be carried away. Just how bare was she when she arrived?

D5-29-3 Extract of letter written by Pat Hagart to Messrs Jean Texier in Feb 1785

Hagart does not give a date for his visit to Deerness but he had to go over her with a very fine tooth comb indeed to find any clue as to her ownership. He found a paper wrote in the Dutch language but very much spoilt with salt water and that gave him enough information to conclude he should write to Messrs Texier.

D5-29-3 Extract of letter written by Pat Hagart to Messrs Jean Texier in Feb 1785

Given that he did not put quill to paper until mid-February, and that there was good money to be made from the salvage of the ship and a cut in the disposal of a valuable cargo, it is reasonable to think that Hagart did not delay in writing to Messrs Texier once he knew who owned her. So any other delay in the matter was either on the part of the landowner Dr Thomas Balfour or the Deerness men. Given too that Balfour might turn her arrival on his shores to his advantage, the conclusion that Deerness men, fully aware of the claims landowner and Crown might pursue, held back on the news of her arrival, and took best advantage of what cargo no-one could argue to have been on board her when she was taken to shore. Only Deerness men could say what was still removable at that point...

Or a Danish Captain who had reported to Messrs Texier that he had seen and clearly boarded the Jonge Louisa off the Norwegian coast near the island of Hitra (previously Hitteroe) after 9th December 1784. (see below)

Pat Hagart's letter would have left Orkney by ship in trusted hands and been passed along a pathway of further trusted hands until it finally arrived in Amsterdam. Messrs Texier received Pat's letter and responded on 18th March 1785. This letter produced a response from Pat on 9th April, a speedy turnaround for the time. 

Messrs Texier were able to give a detailed account of events leading up to the arrival of the Jonge Louisa off Orkney. The ship, under the command of Captain Nathaniel Pronk, had headed from Holland, north through the Skagerrak and then south through the Cattegat, into the Baltic Sea, and to St Petersburg where she was loaded with iron, and thence to Wybourg (now Vyborg on the Russian side of the Russian/Finnish border) where a large cargo of wood was loaded. The iron belonged to Messrs Texier and the wood to Messrs Mauritz, Dreyer and Bendix with whom Pat Hagart would liaise regarding the eventual sale of the wood.

D5-29-3 Extract of letter written by Messrs Jean Texier, Amsterdam to Pat Hagart in March 1785

The Jonge Louisa turned south again, heading back to Amsterdam, came successfully back through the Baltic Sea, the Cattegat and the Skagerrak, but on or about the 9th December, being on the Coast of Jutland, the sea being very high with a great Storm, the boats having got loose and fallen upon the Hatches, tore them to pieces and the ship got soon full of water. In such condition having nothing to live upon, the Captain and Crew took to the boat and were taken up at Sea by an English Captain who carried them to Dieppe and thence back to Amsterdam to report the abandonment of the ship. 

Basic representation of the last journey of the Jonge Louisa.
Orange is the route she should have taken back to Amsterdam;
Purple shows roughly where she was blown off course to after the crew abandoned her.

Messrs Texier had some suspicion that the vessel had been left too soon by the Crew and made enquiries in Norway, being advised by a Danish Captain, that she had been seen not far from Hiether Wie (now Hitra). The Danish Captain reported his removal of the ship's cable and the greater part of the kitchen furniture. There were no further reports of her being seen until 31 days after the storm, when she appeared off Deerness, having come across the North Sea in one piece, pushed across by the east winds. 

D5/29/3 Extract from letter written by Messrs Jean Texier re Danish Captain, 7th June 1785

Once the Crown, via the Earldom, and the Balfours were involved, the Deerness inhabitants lost control of the ship and cargo but local men were employed later in 1785 to unload the vessel and transfer her cargo to Kirkwall for sale. The ship and cargo were kept under watch until dispersal, with that watch organised by Thomas Balfour's main man in Deerness, George Louttit, schoolmaster. Is his report tongue in cheek when he describes a gale on 20 October 1785, in which some of the deals were damaged? Louttit lived in Deerness and one of his sisters was married to James Petrie at Stonehall. Might his loyalties have been divided between his employer and his family's best interests?

The men who finally unloaded the Jonge Louisa were Gilbert Wick, Thomas Miller, Robert Stove, Magnus Dick, John Laughton, John Sutherland, Hugh Peace, William Work, a second Hugh Peace and William Sinclair. Is Robert Stove a young Sergeant? (See our previous blog post here). He is probably not the same Robert Stove of Sandside who helped bring the ship under control, for that group of the original seven men were in hot dispute with Pat Hagart over salvage monies. It was the opinion, when the men ultimately went to law in the autumn of 1785, of David Balfour lawyer in Edinburgh and brother of landowner Thomas Balfour, that they had no claim on the cargo of the ship, but they did have a salvage claim for the ship itself and in the end they received £70 between them for their efforts, equivalent to approximately £6000 today. Presumably it was further sub-divided with the 33 men who helped in the initial rescue of the ship.

D2/52/12 - Extract showing the result of the court case where £70 was awarded to
Deerness men for salving the ship, 16th Jan 1786

A shipwreck was a valuable event and everyone involved in processing that wreck could make money and benefit from her arrival. In the case of the Jonge Louisa, the bounty was great, and there was none of the extra effort of feeding, clothing and generally looking after her crew. The Earldom dealt with her salvage and the ultimate sale of her cargo, and the ship itself, being paid for work done by the ship's and cargo's owners. Having the opportunity to purchase and sell the cargo, the Balfours received salvage monies, bought parts of the cargo and no doubt made money from that. Others, for example: Kenneth Sutherland of Campston bought deals from the cargo; George Louttit was paid for his endeavours in Deerness; the boatmen who rescued her were paid; their lawyer was paid; the men who unloaded the ship were paid. Who knows what other bounty also furnished the houses and farms and boats of Deerness following the arrival of the Jonge Louisa.

D2/52/2  Extract showing the final salvage amount made from the wreck.

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Sources used: 

Balfour papers: D2/23/3; D2/52/2; D2/52/9

Graemeshall papers: D5/29/3

History of Orkney by W P L Thomson

Google Maps

Wikipedia

Iron Box of Jewels #4

Our last post has inspired our group and other researchers to try different sources and find more information about James Keith and the jewels. 

We now have two leads for the origin of the jewels:
a) with James Keith from Benholm and Dunnottar Castles or 
b) a shipwreck in Shetland.
Option a) was our first lead and the family which were intricately connected with the Keiths during this time period were the Strachans. The Clan Strachan Society website has information on the story of the robbery from Benholm Castle 

I wrote to the Clan Historian, who replied with the following information:

I would refer you to an article in our newsletter, page 3. I wrote it from a Strachan perspective, but it has some information you may be interested in, much of it from the book "Bonnet Lairds" by Colin Thornton-Kemsley:

"early 1623, while the Earl Marischal, then aged 70, was away from his castle of Dunnottar, his Countess, her son James and Sir Alexander Strachan - in secret and cover of darkness - carried the whole furnishings and valuables from Benholm Castle and Dunnottar to Thornton, where the Countess went to live with the Laird while the Earl Marischal was still alive"

Thornton Castle, near Laurencekirk

Regarding your blog, it was not just James Keith and his mother, but Alexander Strachan of Thornton (his mom's lover) who all took belongings and valuables from Dunnottar and Benholm back to Thornton, where they all lived while the Earl Marischal was still alive. This tells you about the relationship (or lack thereof) James Keith had with his father. The three of them took up residence at Thornton thereafter. Also

After some legal banter back and forth, a settlement was agreed upon by the parties. The Countess Marischal, now married to Strachan, had to yield up the heirlooms but she was permitted to retain her share of the jewellery and a large proportion of the plenishings. The lands and barony of Benholm were conveyed by James Keith to his stepfather Sir Alexander Strachan who then surrendered them to the new Earl Marischal.

It appears James was born about 1600, and Alexander Strachan of Thornton was born 1587. It is my opinion that Alexander and Margaret were both dead before 1648, when the Thornton Estate was taken possession by a remote relative, James Strachan of Inchtuthill (Alexander Strachan had no children). I would suggest a high probability the case of jewels were his mothers (Margaret Ogilvy, the ex-countess Marischal), and were likely given to him by his step-father Sir Alexander Strachan of Thornton, Bart. when she died. I would also suggest a moderate to high probability that James Keith was residing at Thornton, with his mother and step-father between 1624 to no later than 1647-1648. Alexander Strachan of Thornton, who despite the scandal, maintained a high political profile/office with the Crown and was frequently absent from Thornton. It seems reasonable to think James Keith remained at Thornton to manage the Estate for his mother and step-father."

One question remains to me that if the jewels rightfully belonged to James Keith, then why were they to be conveyed to the Earl of Morton when possible? 

Option b) might explain this. Our last post (Iron Box of Jewels #3) was shared on the Institute for Northern Studies Facebook page and we received this suggestion from Colin Dicke:

"On the 2nd March 1653 the VOC [Dutch East India Company] flute Lastdrager went aground on the Island of Yell in Shetland. The ship had previously been damaged in a storm as it attempted to navigate the English Channel on the way to Batavia (present day Jakarta).

It was rumoured that the ship was so heavily laden with contraband that the Captain would not allow the cargo to be unloaded for proper repairs to be undertaken on the island of Texel. So when it set sail again, it was already in poor condition when it was hit by a second storm, and quickly broke up on the rocks.  One survivor was an 18 year old boy who later gave a detailed account of the events that followed. After finding refuge in a blacksmiths workshop, the boy (Johannes) and the other 22 survivors managed to rescue a few chests of silver and brandy. Johannes troubles were only beginning, however, as the men drank the brandy and squabbled over the silver, with some attempting to kill the others to make away with their share. Johannes however managed to convince a smaller group to attempt to get back to Holland, and together they managed to recruit the assistance of the local laird, Ninian Neven. With the aid of Neven, the remaining crew managed to fend off other attacks from the breakaway group. And, using some of the retrieved silver they purchased a ship suitable to take them back to Holland. The remaining treasure was buried nearby.

The Lastdrager may have looked like this

On the 29th March (Johannes gives the date as 8th April), James Keith of Benholm arrived in Yell with a band of 60 soldiers in search for the shipwrecked treasure. According to Johannes, Keith was unsuccessful in stealing any of the silver, but in the skirmish that ensued Nevens daughter was attacked, then shot. She died soon afterwards. Eventually Johannes and the others made his way back to Holland and in the following year to his destination of Batavia. On the 11th January 1684 he was appointed Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. In the 1970s the site of the shipwreck was dived by the underwater archaeologist Robert Stenuit, who recovered many items including early examples of golf clubs and clay pipes. No more silver or valuables have been publicly recovered.

This may be irrelevant to your quest, but it could well be possible that Keith was able to recover some of the contraband treasure. Some of which may be referred to in the documents you cite."

So, if Keith was able to recover some of the treasure and as he still factor for the Earldom Estate at the time would he have acted on behalf of the Earl of Morton? Would that be why the jewels should be passed on to the Earl when he came out of exile? The Palaeography Group are currently transcribing a document from 1653 which mentions James Keith, Shetland and silver. Hopefully it will shed some more light on this particular story. 

One of our regular followers helped us to discover a word in the original document which we were puzzling over. The word looked like pikworth at first and we thought it might be a measure of gold, as the phrase looked like "a pikeworth case of gold".

Extract from Morton Earldom Papers GD150/2531/4

Our follower GenKnit (and her daughter) soon discovered that we were wrong and that the word was in fact "piketooth" which today would be "toothpick" and therefore the phrase would be a "a piketooth case of gold". Here is what one might have looked like, taken from this website.

Thank you to all who have helped so far. We will continue to research this mystery and report any findings we make. If you have any ideas for information, please comment below or contact Orkney Library & Archive through our Facebook or Twitter pages. http://www.orkneylibrary.org.uk/