The Prize Papers
Explore records in the collection.
The Prize Papers
The Prize Papers Project is an open access digitisation project focused on the records of the English High Court of Admiralty, spanning 1652–1815.
About this image
A collection of letters from the Prize Papers collection. Catalogue reference: HCA/32/313
The Prize Papers Project is part of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony. It is based at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg and The National Archives.
- Funder
Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities and The National Archives, along with grants from the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation.
- Timeframe
2018–2037
- In partnership with
The University of Oldenburg
- The National Archives' project leads
About the project
Together, the Prize Papers form an unparalleled global archive. The materials originate from people of diverse backgrounds across the world and are written in more than 19 languages, offering insights into early modern lives, mobility, communication, and conflict. They are of value to researchers working in a wide range of areas, being of particular interest for people researching histories of:
- Overseas trade
- Colonialism
- Slavery
- Seafaring
- Travel
- Migration
- Family
- Warfare at sea
Two major strands of work form the core of the project.
- At The National Archives, teams sort, identify, and catalogue the papers on a ship-by-ship basis, while also conserving and photographing the material.
- At the University of Oldenburg, researchers create detailed, research-oriented metadata and present both the images and the metadata in an open access web portal. The portal’s design is informed by ongoing engagement with developments in Digital Humanities.
To encourage global engagement with the collection, the project collaborates internationally with scholars and institutions that have an interest in histories represented within the Prize Papers. Alongside the Gottingen Academy and The National Archives, the project has also been generously supported by the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation, who have funded initial sorting and cataloguing work.
What is in the Prize Papers collection?
This remarkable collection consists of documents and objects taken from ships captured by the British during wartime and retained as legal exhibits. It includes trading and navigation papers, personal archives belonging to mariners and passengers, and approximately 160,000 undelivered letters intercepted as mail-in-transit. Alongside these records are extensive court proceedings created by the court as it arbitrated the legality of the captures.
In total, this collection comprises around 500,000 individual records.
Learn more about the Prize Papers project
prizepapers.de
Visit the Prize Papers website
Explore case studies and current research.
portal.prizepapers.de
Visit the Prize Papers Portal
Home to an array of documents and artefacts from the collection.
Pictures from the collection
Important information
Please note that the Prize Papers reference many potentially upsetting topics, including the enslavement of people. One of the records featured on this page references slavery and human trafficking.
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The Prize Papers Project is part of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony. It is based at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg and The National Archives.
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The Prize Papers Project is part of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony. It is based at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg and The National Archives.
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The Prize Papers Project is part of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony. It is based at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg and The National Archives.