kind of arms, ammunition, and other forms of war materiel. Nevertheless, as a free port, Marstrand was required to permit entrance to all trading vessels. Doerfeld did not believe a word of it, which becomes clear when reading the coded letter he attached to his official letter for Suffolk of 12 August. H e wrote that the Swedish government was involved either in a project to gain advantages from the present circumstances, meaning the North American rebellion, or they were afraid to rake too severe acrions against rhe rebels, which could lead to their own trading vessels being vulnerable to attack by Americans on the high seas. According to Doerfeld, he had received this information from a "confidential person," 14 probably with ties within the Swedish government. In Gothenburg, Erskine secured proof that the brigantine Molly was indeed an American ship. Promising the ship's crew money, he succeeded in convincing a substantial number of them to rake their leave, forcing Captain Woodhouse to delay his departure until he could recruit new crew members . Additionally, Erskine learned from the sailors that the Molly was in fact the Sea Nymph of Bristol, which recently had been taken as a prize in Bermudan waters by the American navy captain, John Paul Jones. Because the ship was British property seized by rebel forces , the Swedes-according to Erskine-directly
violated Article 13 in the Friendship and Trade Treary. 15 However, in a dispatch sent to Doerfeld on 2 September, Suffolk wrote that the British government was actually not overly concerned by the fact that a rebel ship was trading at Marstrand, as long as the Swedish king prevented them from purchasing arms and ammunirion.16 The impression that the British did not find the presence of an American rebel ship at Marstrand embarrassing is furt her strengthened by the fact that Suffolk, when meeting with Swedish ambassador von Nokken, said that the Swedish actions taken regarding the Molly had nor been met with any suspicions within the English Courr. 17 Meanwhile, Erskine had received informat ion from his agent at Marsrrand that Captain Woodhouse had been made a Swedish citizen by the magistrates ofMarsrrand. According to Erskine, this action was taken to make the vessel a Swedish ship, and thereby delaying the investigation of the Molly's origins. 18 When Doerfeld raised the matter with Senator Falckenberg in Stockholm, Doerfeld told Falckenberg that providing the American captain with Swed ish citizenship and transferring his ship to Swedish registry-thus a neutral vessel-would only encourage other rebels to make their way to Marstrand to do the same . The consequence from this could , according to Doerfeld, result in Swedish
flagged-vessels becoming exposed to disagreeable "accidents" when encountering British men-of-war on the open seas. 19 By mentioning the Royal Navy in this way, Doerfeld clearly intended it as a threat to stop the Swedes from trading wi th American ships in Marstrand. In Marstrand, the American ship was about ready to sai l, according to Erskine. In a dispatch written on 1 November, he in formed Lord Suffolk that sixty casks of gunpowder had been exported from Gothenburg to Marstrand without the proper licenses. Erskine at once went to see the governor to request that he stop the shipment from being loaded aboard ship. Governor Durietz answered that he would absolutely do so, but it appears that no such orders ever left the governor's office. 20 On 23 November, Erskine's agent in Marstrand reported th at 200 casks of gunpowder were loaded on a Swedish sloop, and it was believed that the Swedish vessel was supposed to accompany the Molly, now re-named as the Syrene and flying Swedish colors, to sea. Erskine anticipated that the gunpowder would be transferred to the American vessel at sea or in a Norwegian port. 2 1 On 9 December the Molly and the Swedish sloop weighed anchor and departed Marstrand. The last time the Molly is mentioned in the records is in mid January 1778. In a short letter to Suffolk, Erskine wrote that he had received information that the ship had entered the port of Arendal in Norway, where the gunpowder from the Swedish sloop was indeed transferred to the Molly. 22 When the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, and especially after the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, new trading opportunities opened up for Swedish commercial interests, making early diplomatic relations with North American agents very important. Swedish minister of finance Joha n Liljencrantz hoped to encourage the Americans to enter the Baltic trade via Sweden, and he was eager to sign a trade treaty with the United States as soon as possible after the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783.23 This interest lhe British had reason to suspect that the brigantine Molly (ex-Sea Nymph) and other in signing a treaty with the Americans can American ships arriving at Marstrand were engaged in the transport of war materiel. In the explain why orders sent from Stockholm spring of 1776, the American brig Nancy, above, sailed to the Danish West Indies where it to Gothenburg and Marsrrand to stop American ships from loading contraband loaded a cargo ofgunpowder, arms, and other supplies for the American revolutionaries.
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SEA HISTORY 153, WINTER 2015- 16