[File of Manuscript Documents Concerning 19th-Century Voyages of the French Cargo Ship Charles et Adolphe to Valparaiso]

[Valparaiso & Santiago, 1831. Good plus.. [31]pp. Varying size sheets, but mostly small folio. Two sections of material sewn and bradded together. Moderate wear at edges. Scattered contemporary ink stamps. Some tanning and occasional soiling. In Spanish and French; accomplished in several, mostly legible hands. An interesting group of documents that provide details of a late 1820s voyage from Callao to Valparaiso made by a French cargo ship called the Charles et Adolphe. The preponderance consists of accounts, bills, and expenses for the journey, including an account of wages owed to South American sailors and hands aboard the vessel, tariffs and customs charges, bills and payments for cargo from local trading companies in Valparaiso. Many of these are signed "Bon à payer" by the captain of the vessel, a Monsieur Gigneaux, for whom we locate no immediate information; some are additionally signed or countersigned by the local French consular diplomats.

The journey was apparently somewhat fraught and unsuccessful, with some damage occurring to the cargo caused by a leak sprung in the hold during the voyage. The most absorbing document present is a report on a tribunal for the matter held during 1831 in a special French consular chancery court, in which the ships' captain, representatives of the cargo owners, consular officers, and several witnesses were present. The minutes describe the damage to the ship and cargo, and provides the account of local witnesses, two captains drafted to assess the condition of the boat once it arrived in port, who testified that the ship was otherwise in good condition, and the leak and subsequent damage were neither foreseeable or caused by any negligence on the part of the Charles et Adolphe's captain or crew. A number of the financial records here relate to the repair of the ship and expenses incurred while in port during the repair work. A good group of material, representing a confluence of issues concerning international shipping and trade in early independent Chile.