The American Ship John Jay and HMS Driver: Two Vessels, Two Countries, Two Intersecting Stories

The John Jay, a merchant ship from Providence, Rhode Island, is captured as a Prize of War by a Bermudian-built British Naval sloop of war in January 1806. A forced journey to Bermuda, litigation, condemnation, and an appeal follow. This project is set within the context of the Napoleonic Wars in the Atlantic World. Staged in Providence, Bermuda, London and on the high seas, this true tale illuminates’ voices seldom heard, and stories about places and people that have not been told. Their stories were carefully preserved but hidden in the maritime records of the Brown Family, and in Prize Papers at The National Archives (TNA), London, UK. These collections are exceeding rich in evidence from the 18^th and early 19^th centuries but underutilized as historical sources.

This tale covers many thousands of nautical miles under sail, and it focuses on ordinary and extraordinary people whose fate is intertwined with the ship John Jay. There is another story here as well, that of HMS Driver. The John Jay was one of many vessels chased, inspected, or captured by the Driver, and the Driver was but one of many British naval vessels patrolling the sea lanes in the North Atlantic. This legal case showcases the contentious issues of citizenship, politics, and neutral rights, and how people navigated the political, economic, and legal constructs of their world in crisis. The story opens in the fall of 1804, in Providence, Rhode Island, as the Ship John Jay, returns from her fifth passage, and after a quick re-provisioning, she sails for Amsterdam and then Batavia (Jakarta). It ends with a verdict by the High Court of Admiralty in December 1807 which reversed the Bermuda Vice Admiralty Court condemnation.

One of the many people involved was the John Jay’s supercargo John Bowers. He was responsible for the ship’s valuable cargo which included coffee, sugar, and tea. Originally from Massachusetts, he moved to nearby Providence as a boy in 1787, where he found work in Rhode Island’s flourishing maritime industries. By 1804, he was an experienced mariner and a trusted employee of Brown and Ives, a leading mercantile firm. This is in part his narrative.

Mariners and maritime communities were impacted by the natural hazards of wind, weather and water, the economic difficulties of trade, and the complexity and ambiguity of domestic policy and international relations. The global conflict between Britain and France led to the seizure of the John Jay as a prize of war. This micro-history encapsulates the violence that frequently occurred at sea. It intimately documents the challenges of sailing during wartime. This journey is full of risk. Chaos and confusion loom large, and the international political and legal difficulties were costly.

The poster will contain visuals to illustrate the intersecting voyages of the Driver and the John Jay. It will illuminate what happened, and how people responded. The poster will incorporate select digital images of archival sources including representative maps, logbook entries, accounting records, maritime records, legal- prize papers, and newspaper articles.