The French postal administration had tried to deliver the letters to the ship, sending them to multiple ports in France but always arrived just too late. The crew was imprisoned and the ship sold. The Galatée was sailing from Bordeaux to Quebec when, in 1758, it was captured by the British ship, the Essex, and sent to Portsmouth. Morieux found extensive evidence of these strategies in the Galatée letters which like so many others, never reached their intended recipients. Relatives also asked the families of crewmates to insert messages to their loved-one in their letters. Sometimes people sent multiple copies of letters to different ports hoping to reach a sailor. In the 18th century, sending letters from France to a ship, a constantly moving target, was incredibly difficult and unreliable. There was far less of a divide between intimate and collective." It's hard to tell someone what you really think about them with people peering over your shoulder. Today we would find it very uncomfortable to write a letter to a fiancée knowing that mothers, sisters, uncles, neighbours would read it before it was sent, and many others would read it upon receipt. Morieux said: "These letters show people dealing with challenges collectively. In the meantime, their families waited and repeatedly tried to contact them and exchange news. Some of these men died from disease and malnutrition, but many others were released. Across the period of the Seven Years' War as a whole, there were 64,373 French sailors imprisoned in Britain. In 1758, out of 60,137 French sailors, a third (19,632) were detained in Britain. Britain exploited this by imprisoning as many French sailors as it could for the duration of the war. In the 18th century, people only had letters but what they wrote about feels very familiar."ĭuring the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), France commanded some of the world's finest ships but lacked experienced sailors. When we are separated from loved-ones by events beyond our control like the pandemic or wars, we have to work out how to stay in touch, how to reassure, care for people and keep the passion alive. They reveal how we all cope with major life challenges. "These letters are about universal human experiences, they're not unique to France or the 18th century. Their intended recipients didn't get that chance. I realized I was the first person to read these very personal messages since they were written. The letters were very small and were sealed so I asked the archivist if they could be opened and he did. "There were three piles of letters held together by ribbon. "I only ordered the box out of curiosity," Morieux said. He published his findings today in the journal Annales. Professor Renaud Morieux, from Cambridge University's History Faculty and Pembroke College, spent months decoding these and 102 other letters written with wild spelling, no punctuation or capitalization and filling every inch of the expensive paper they appear on. Imprisoned somewhere in England, Jean Topsent would never receive Nanette's love letter. She signed "Your obedient wife Nanette", an affectionate nickname. She perhaps meant "embrace" but also "to make love to you". "I cannot wait to possess you" wrote Anne Le Cerf to her husband, a non-commissioned officer on the Galatée. In 1761, he remarried, safely back in France. Marie died the following year in Le Havre, almost certainly before Louis was released. He would never receive her letter and they would never meet again. She didn't know where Louis Chambrelan was, or that his ship had been captured by the British. So wrote Marie Dubosc to her husband, the first Lieutenant of the Galatée, a French warship, in 1758. "I could spend the night writing to you … I am your forever faithful wife.
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