About 1,800 ships, American or supporting America, were captured by the Royal Navy or Loyalist / British privateers between 1776 and 1783. Most were condemned before the Loyalist Admiralty Court in occupied New York City. The depositions of American seamen, the trial papers, and the many papers found aboard these ships, were sent to London as part of the evacuation of New York in 1783, and became lost to sight. They include personal testimony, evidence of courage and patriotism on both sides; letters between wives and husbands, physically-separated families, and new business partners in America and France; and of course the daily experience of 18th century life at sea.

The Prize Papers Project is now cataloguing and digitising these papers, for free online access. The first sets of papers of 150 ships taken in 1776 and 1777 will be available in the Prize Papers Portal from 8 October 2026. We are holding a research workshop on 8 October, online and onsite at the National Archives, London, to celebrate the re-emergence of this archive: the workshop is available as a stream and open to in-person attendance. We will also make the individual talks accessible on our Prize Papers Website from late October, for those who cannot make this date or time.

Bringing together specialists on prize law and the American War of Independence at sea, as well as archivists, historians, conservators, and digital innovators, the Prize Papers workshop will celebrate international exchange and collaboration. This first publication is only the beginning. Major bodies of captured material from American, French, Spanish, Dutch and recaptured British vessels, in both the American and European/global theatres of war, will be published in the coming months and years, as more material is identified, catalogued, digitised, contextualised, researched, and made accessible for free use across the world.
We would be delighted to welcome you to our workshop and hope you will find the Prize Papers as exciting as we do.

Kind regards
Nele Popp
Research Coordinator of the International Prize Papers Project.