French letters confiscated by Britain's navy opened 265 years on

London [UK], November 8: Letters confiscated by Britain's Royal Navy before they reached French sailors during the Seven Years' War have been opened for the first time. The notes, written in 1757-8, were intended for the crew of French warship the Galatee and sent by wives, fiances, parents and siblings. While the French postal administration took them to multiple ports in France to attempt delivery, they always arrived too late. When they learned the ship had been captured by the British, they forwarded the letters to England, where they were handed to the admiralty in London and ended up in storage.
A Cambridge University academic, who unearthed the collection of 104 letters from the National Archives in Kew, said it was "agonizing how close they got" to reaching their intended recipients. Professor Renaud Morieux, of the History Faculty and Pembroke College, believes officials opened and read two letters to see if they had any military value but decided they only contained "family stuff" and gave up and put them in storage. He said he only asked to look at the box in the archives "out of curiosity" before making his discovery. (dpa)
Source: Qatar Tribune