This international workshop highlights the importance of the UK Prize Papers collection for research on the American War of Independence and offers new insights into lived experiences in war at sea and on land. Bringing together specialists on prize law, the American War of Independence and the Prize Papers, the workshop approaches the collection as a transnational archive of wartime capture and its afterlives. The workshop creates a forum for sustained international exchange and collaboration.

The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of both the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in July and the opening of the British Vice-Admiralty Court in newly-captured New York City in September 1776. Although exceptionally rich, the prize papers of this court have been largely inaccessible. The newly catalogued papers of the New York court (and its mother-court in London) provide new perspectives on the War of Independence at sea, and on lived experiences of the time, through the intercepted papers and letters found by the British on merchant and fighting ships.

Maritime warfare was central to the War of Independence. Controlling, disrupting, and capturing shipping was crucial to the war on both sides. America started privateering early, in 1775, and sought new (previously forbidden) trading partners. From 1778, French naval and privateering activity expanded the war against Britain, followed by Spain and the Netherlands. British naval forces and loyalist privateers sought to stop American and allied shipping, enforce their imperial authority, and weaken the Continental cause. The conflict eventually extended far beyond the North American seaboard.

An initial group of papers from 150 captured ships, American or supporting America, will be published online on 8 October in the Prize Papers Portal, the open-access online database of the Prize Papers Project. This first publication is only the beginning. Major bodies of captured material from American, French, Spanish, Dutch and recaptured British vessels will be published in the coming months and years, as more material is identified, catalogued, digitised, contextualised, researched, and made accessible.

The two-day international workshop, held on 8–9 October at The National Archives, UK and available both online and in person, will bring together specialists in prize law, the American War of Independence, and the Prize Papers from the United States, the United Kingdom, and across Europe. Participants will discuss the Prize Papers and foster sustained international exchange and collaboration.

The workshop is jointly organised by the Prize Papers Project, the German Maritime Museum Bremerhaven, and the German Historical Institute London. It takes place alongside Revolution 250: America’s Independence Story, The National Archives’ major 2026 exhibition marking the anniversary of American independence and drawing in part on the Prize Papers. The workshop is hosted by Nele Popp, Amanda Bevan, Oliver Finnegan and Lucas Haasis.