Dutch Prize Papers

The Prize Papers are documents seized by British navy and privateers from enemy ships in the period 1652-1815. Approximately a quarter of the Prize Papers originates from Dutch ships. Apart from ship’s journals, lists of cargo, accounts, plantation lists and interrogations of crew members, this collection also contains approximately 38,000 business and private letters. The letters originate from all social strata of society and most of them never reached their intended destination.

A substantial subsidy by Metamorfoze, the national programme for the preservation of paper heritage, made it possible to preserve and digitise a small selection of especially Dutch documents. In order to make all digitised material accessible, Huygens ING developed this Virtual Research Environment (VRE). It has been financed by Samenwerkende Maritieme Fondsen (SMF).