Prize Papers Lunch Talks // Prizepapers

Register on eventbrite here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ships-seafaring-15001800-tickets-1931080938069

Overview

An online lecture series organized by the German Maritime Museum and the Prize Papers Project (Prize Papers Talks Special Edition)

The international online lecture series Ships & Seafaring 1500–1800 explores the maritime world of the early modern period. The series will be presented as a special collaboration between the German Maritime Museum, Leibniz Institute for Maritime History (Bremerhaven), and the Prize Papers Project (University of Oldenburg / The National Archives, UK).

Together, we seek to combine perspectives on the written sources of the past with insights into the material world of seafaring - from preserved ships emblematic of maritime heritage, such as the Vasa, the Mary Rose and the Bremen Cog, to artefacts found from the Age of Sail, including Faroe jumpers or coins, as well as personal letters, ships passes and logbooks recovered from Prize Papers collection at The National Archives, UK, and related collections worldwide. The Prize Papers comprise documents and artefacts seized from foreign ships by British privateers and naval vessels between 1652 and 1815, currently being digitized by the Prize Papers Project.

This lecture series bring together historians, archivists, museum curators, climate researchers, archaeologists, renowned scholars, early-career researchers, master’s students, and the interested public in an international, open and collegial setting. The special edition of the Prize Papers Talks online series, features both lectures and roundtable discussions with speakers from the UK, Germany, the United States, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain and the Faroe Islands.

The online series will take place from 10 November 2025 to 30 March 2026. Sessions will be held every other Monday from 1:00–2:00 pm (CET) / 12:00–1:00 pm (UK time), except for sessions hosted from the United States, which will begin at 3:00 pm (CET).

Participation is open to the public, with advance registration required. Links to the online meeting room will be provided upon registration.

This lecture series is organized and moderated by Lucas Haasis (German Maritime Museum Bremerhaven) and Nele Popp (Prize Papers Project).

Program

10 November 2025: Jane Ohlmeyer, Tom Truxes, John Shovlin

Glucksman Ireland House NYU, USA, New York University, USA, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

The Amity Papers, 1690 – A Roundtable

24 November 2025: Randolph Cock

The National Archives, UK

Piecing Together Clues from the (spoiler alert!) USS Lexington, 1777: a Whodunnit from the Prize Papers

01 December 2025: Jean Soulat

LandArc Laboratory and Archaeology of Piracy Research Program, France

From Archives to Archaeology: A Study of a Pirate's Lair on Sainte-Marie Island, Madagascar

08 December 2025: Severin Angers

York University / The National Archives, UK

Enthusiasts in the Cause of Liberty? Women’s Patriotism in Military Families’ Correspondence of the American Revolutionary War and Napoleonic Wars

15 December 2025: Eleonore Rohland

Bielefeld University, Germany

DOLDRUMS: Deciphering OLD ship Records to Understand the Maritime Structure of the Atlantic Intertropical Convergence Zone

12 January 2026: Constanze Weiske

Global and European Studies Institute (GESI) University of Leibzig, Germany

German Slavery in the Dutch Atlantic

19 January 2026: Milagrosa Semper

Instituto CEU de Estudios Históricos (CEU Elcano), Spain

Mad about the blue: the quarrel about a prize of indigo in Omoa Battle

26 January 2026: Felix Rösch

Heritage department of the Hanseatic town of Lübeck, Germany

The Lübeck ship find and its setting within the North European ship building tradition

09 February 2026: Hielke van Nieuwenhuize

Independent Researcher, Greifswald

"The master is a Zealander, but lives with his wife and familie at Stockholme": the importance of foreign seamen and their networks for the development of Swedish seafaring in the 17th century.

23 February 2026: Vera Moya

Red Imperial Contractor State Group-University of Navarra, Spain

Kings of Privateering: A History of the Spanish Enterprise

02 March 2026: Margretha Nónklett, Noomi í Dali, Erling Isholm

The Faroe Islands National Museum, University of the Faroe Islands

Exploring the Letters and Artefacts from the Captured Ship Anne Marie (1807): A Roundtable Discussion

09 March 2026: Casey Schmitt

Cornell University, USA

The Predatory Sea: Human Trafficking, Colonization, and Trade in the Greater Caribbean, 1570-1670

16 March 2026: Amandine Colson, Dennis Hoffmann

German Maritime Museum Bremerhaven (DSM), Germany

From Shipwreck to Hologram. Exploring the Bremen Cog through 3D-Storytelling