Welcome to the Prize Papers Portal, which is going to be the home to a vast collection of documents and artefacts taken from ships captured by British privateers and Royal Navy ships between 1652–1817, along with corresponding legal papers. 

While, step by step, available here, in open access, the physical materials are preserved in the records of the English High Court of Admiralty at The National Archives, UK, in the series HCA 30, HCA 32 and HCA 45.

Over the course of 2022 and 2023 the Prize Papers Project will publish representative case studies of documents found on board ships seized by the British during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748). The purpose of these case studies is to introduce our visitors to the richness, character and diversity of the Prize Papers collection.

In the further course of this year, more archival collections that date from the War of Austrian Succession will be added continuously to the online