An Exceptional Illustrated Manuscript Log - “His Book Made at Jersey”

146 heavily illustrated manuscript pages in the hand of Rouet, 16 manuscript drawing in the hand of Bertram, 16 blank leaves, mostly written in French with some captions and titles in English, many full page watercolours of ships, many text illustrations and diagrams, including navigational instruments, a coloured world map, coloured vignettes, many pages of mathematical tables for navigation, trigonometry equations are often illustrated with small ships and islands, owner inscriptions to end papers for Phillipe Rouet dated Jersey 1788 and a few later entries in the hand of Thomas Bertram dated 1832, original vellum, folio (335 x 240mm), 1788-1832

Most of the ships illustrated are English, with a few French and one American. The ships named align with the list of Privateers known to have been operating under Letters of Marque from Jersey at the time. The named ships include The Dragon of Jersey, Providence of Jersey, Dolphin, Clara, brig Harmony at anchor, Venus of Jersey, and Adelaide of Guernsey.

This elaborately illustrated navigational manuscript belonged to Phillipe Rouet (c.1764-1826). Rouet was likely a midshipman, training to become a lieutenant, on one of the Privateer ships. Rouet was around twenty-four years old when he wrote this manuscript, which would suggest several years of naval or privateer service before the navigation studies that gave rise to the production of this work.

Privateering, a form of piracy that was legalised in times of war as it disrupted enemy shipping and provided the authorities with a ready supply of intelligence of enemy activities. From 1689 a Letter of Marque was used to differentiate a legal Privateer from an illegal pirate. Once legalised, Jersey shipowners were quick to take up the chance, with the earliest Letter of Marque granted in 1692. The heyday of the Jersey privateers was in the eighteenth century, when Britain was at war for 48 years with various European maritime nations, 36 of them with the French. The strategic importance of Jersey made the island’s privateers a major disruptive force to the French at the outbreak of each war. The French made numerous attempts to capture Jersey in 1748, 1756, 1758 and throughout the 1760s and 1770s. In 1781 French troops landed on Jersey, but storms had depleted their forces. However, they managed to go undetected by the guards and captured the Governor, Major Moses Corbet, in his bed. British troops were alerted and they were attacked, in the end taking over 600 French prisoners.

Provenance: “A Phillipe Rouet died in 1828 aged 64 with burial on 15th March 1828 in St Brelade. We believe Phillipe married Rachel Elizabeth le Cornu in St Helier on 26th September 1812. He would have been around 48 on his wedding day which suggests a long career at sea. Phillipe’s burial record in 1828 does not state what he did for a living which indicates a career as a privateer.” – John Underwood.

[John Underwood; http://doug-jersey.freeservers.com/Privateering.htm; ]