The merchant from Providence was making a questionable insurance claim, and his Philadelphia underwriters didn’t want to pay.
As John Brown told it, he and his (now deceased) uncle Obadiah had undertaken precisely the voyage for which they had purchased the insurance policy in 1760: a trip to the West Indies to exchange prisoners of war with the French enemy, under the protection of an official flag of truce. Their vessel had, they declared, traveled to Port-au-Prince, in the French colony of Saint Domingue (modern-day Haiti). Then it had headed back to Providence.
Britain was at war with France, and the Browns knew that their vessel would be in constant danger of capture. They had thus prudently acquired an insurance policy through a Philadelphia broker shortly after the vessel departed Providence in early 1760. While it was possible to acquire an insurance policy that covered only the natural and typical hazards of a sea voyage (such as storms, rocks, or water damage), the Browns instead opted for a more comprehensive (and more expensive) policy that covered them against “all Risques, English, &c.” This meant that their underwriters would indemnify them for losses occasioned by the capture of their merchant ship by any vessel whatsoever—French enemies or British compatriots. The policy’s coverage against British capture was important, as it turned out, since the Browns’ brig was in fact taken, on its return from Saint Domingue, by a British privateer: a schooner carrying a letter of marque from the British government that allowed it to legally capture and claim certain oceangoing vessels and their cargoes.
Why would the Browns’ own compatriots capture their vessel? The British captors discovered that the vessel was carrying molasses and sugar, which it had evidently purchased from the French at Saint Domingue in exchange for provisions and naval stores. Far from virtuously recovering British prisoners, then, the Providence vessel had actually been peddling strategically important supplies to the French enemies, paying duties, to boot, that supported the French war effort. The captors were unable to produce paperwork documenting this transaction, but they argued that the presence of French molasses and sugar was sufficient proof that such a trade had taken place, and further noted that the Browns’ vessel suspiciously lacked “all the legal, necessary, and customary Papers, which all fair Traders ought to have and carry.” During the trial, several of the brig’s mariners confirmed that New England provisions had been landed and molasses and sugar taken in. Under prevailing doctrines of international law, the captors argued, the Providence vessel was therefore engaged in “illicit and contraband Trade” and was fair game for British seizure.