Love in times of war: For the first time in 265 years, researchers have opened more than 100 letters to French sailors from the Seven Years’ War. The letters were sent by wives, fiancées, parents and siblings to the 181 crew members of the warship “Galatée” in 1757/58. In several French ports, shipments narrowly missed the crew.
When the ship was finally captured by the British, French authorities sent the letters to England. But there they ended up in a warehouse – and now they have been discovered by a Cambridge University researcher at the National Archives at Kew.
“There were three stacks of letters held together with ribbons,” said historian Renaud Morieux, according to a statement released on Tuesday. “I realized that I was the first person to read these extremely personal messages since they were written.” The real recipients would not have had this opportunity. “It was very emotional,” Morieux said.
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The letters dealt with personal matters, the scientist said. “They reveal how much we all have to deal with great challenges in life. When we are separated from loved ones by events beyond our control, such as pandemics or wars, we try to stay in touch, to reassure ourselves, to care for people and “To keep the passion alive,” said Morieux. “Today we have Zoom and WhatsApp. In the 18th century people only had letters, but what they wrote sounds very familiar.”
The historian cited as an example a letter from Marie Dubosc to her husband, First Lieutenant Louis Chambrelan. “Good evening, my dear friend. It’s midnight. I think it’s time to rest,” Dubosc wrote. The couple would never see each other again – the wife died shortly afterwards. It took Morieux several months to decipher the letters. Spelling and punctuation were therefore completely mixed up. The historian published the results of his research in the magazine “Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales”.