L30/14/269/2

Sent from Tenerife:

20 Sep 1774

From: 1774 To: 1774

Refers largely to events which happened aboard the Royal Schooner, under Captain Thomas Webster, which entered into Tenerife on 14th April, Informs Grantham that the Captain had supposedly lost one member of crew during the voyage due to dropsy. Says he was later informed that the Captain had in fact hung a man during his voyage. On his return home, he had pressed for information to establish whether the deceased had been subjected to any ill treatment. All he was able to collect was that he had been a very troublesome drunken fellow who broached the wine in the hold and on occasion threatened the Captain. In view of his sickness, it was said that the Captain had initially had him put on shore under the care of a doctor, who had advised that he should not be allowed to get idle and to refrain from drinking liquor. However, on departure, he soon relapsed back into his old manner of behaviour and refused to come up and work on deck. Says a message was sent by his vice-consul to his Excellency, desiring that the Captain should be summoned to him as he wanted to settle his account with his merchant as there was another Captain appointed for the vessel. This could not be arranged as the Captain was now being confined for crimes which he was not ignorant of. Says he had requested his excellency would inform him as to why the Captain was confined, in order that he might know what steps to take for his release. Steps were immediately taken to secure a quantity of money on board designed for the use of the Garrison of Senegal. Says he also directed the Captains mate to take the most private manner of quitting the vessel. The General had written to say that the Captains crime could not be subject to any other jurisdiction than that of the country where he arrives and if there were any treatise to the contrary they should be sent to him. Speaks of the insulting behaviour of some soldiers who were sent to drag him before the General. The General denied giving such orders, yet he refused to punish the men responsible. In the course of conversation, it followed that he made use of a very indecent expression concerning the present situation of the English affairs. Says he shortly received good information that his excellency had designs to send his Vice-consul to the castle if he refused to go on board in the morning. He immediately secured his papers and in the morning the Captain was sent on board with orders to take out the mate. Six cannon were also directed on the vessel with orders to fire if any resistance was made. Says his Vice-consul was then confined to the castle with no pen or paper and strict orders given that he was not permitted to speak to anyone. The General then sent for Mr Thomas Knight, the owner of the schooner, and ordered him to sign a paper or face imprisonment. Says he wrote to the General for orders to enter his protest as he was promised during his last conversation with him the evening before. The General's answer contains the reasons of their respective conducts in the whole affair. Takes the liberty to select the principal parts of each for his Lordships information. Describes his letter as a strange mixture of folly, abuse, and untruths upon two sheets of paper beginning with a charge of misrepresentation and imposture and ending with an order to desist from troubling him any further. Tells Grantham that during the whole course of his administration there had never been the least infringement on their privileges. It was not directly nor indirectly considered to be a violation to send the Captain on board to call the mate. While he had a right to search or take delinquents out of vessels, he was accused of violating the treatise by transferring a vice-consuls patent from the father to the son. The father was deemed to be incapable of doing his duty of office on account of his advanced age - upwards of 80 years. The junior was a Spanish subject married in the islands, but never regarded as an Englishman. While smuggling has always been regarded as an infringement of law and more occasionally a crime, the treaty has clearly left no room for dispute. This was evident when he was told that he had no business to meddle with this affair, neither did he have the right to enquire into their authenticity. On the matter of the Cedula's arriving from Madrid, it was also doubted that the father would in all probability not live long enough to recover from his emoluments as vice-consul. Says he will not insult his excellency's understanding, but pointed out the conclusion that must inevitably follow. Says he quoted several passages from authors and different writers in support of his assertion. Believes that if Captain Webster was guilty, he could not come under his jurisdiction for a crime committed in the territories of the Kings of England. Observes that it would be better for him to examine the authority he derived from the council of war than to assume an office designed for the protection and advantage of strangers, then convert this to their oppression and prejudice. Believes that if the assessor who drew up his last office had not been extremely ignorant, he would have known that the law he mentioned solely alluded to the subjects of Spain. Judging by the tenor of his letter says that one would think he took up his pen with no other design than to abuse him. Having finished his process with Captain Webster, it would appear he had nothing left to do but transmit a faithful state of the affair to his superior, resting satisfied that he had the his respectful approval, having opposed all of his excellency's measures as were against the privileges of the English nation. Assures his Lordship that he has done everything in his power to prevent things being carried to the extremity as they have been. Says there is not an author or a treaty on the subject in his possession which he did not privately send to the General. He had proved to him from the authentic history of a nation as tenacious of their liberty as any other in Europe, in delivering up one of their own subjects who has committed a crime on board a foreign vessel, in their own harbour. Says he is much surprised that his Excellency should have treated him with the greatest indecency and can account for no other way than supposing it to arise from a violent aversion he had for the owner of the schooner. Finally, he informs Grantham that the mate was discharged from confinement on the ninth day and his vice-consul on the eighth.

item

Webster, Thomas,
Knight, Thomas

naval ships, Tenerife, captain, hanging, crime