The main source materials for this analysis were the logs or journals kept by David Bruce and John Inglis. The first step in the analysis was to compile a spreadsheet of all vessels intercepted and all information provided in the logs about those vessels. That preliminary master list prompted the following questions:

1. What types of vessels were they?

2. What cargoes were they carrying?

3. What vessel types brought what cargoes, from whence to where?

4. Which vessels received more intensive treatment than boarding and rummaging, and why?

In this analysis, I found it useful to estimate unknown vessel types and cargoes by using percentage allocations of them based on the known types and cargoes. To avoid compounding any errors, however, I chose not to base subsequent analyses on previously-derived estimates. For example, I did not base the analysis of cargoes on previously-generated estimates of vessel types, but on the known information.

Vessels

A few types of vessels dominated British American trade, and, by this period, they were denoted primarily by the type of their sailing rigs. In decreasing order of size, with significant overlap between each, these were the ship, the snow, the brig, the schooner, and the sloop.

It was simple enough to sort the list by vessel type. The complicating factor was that, all too often, neither Bruce nor Inglis recorded it. It was not uncommon for the log to read ‘boarded some vessels in the boat,’ or something similar, no other details being given. Not only does such an entry omit details of type; it omits even a number. Taking into account the verbiage of the logs as a whole, and other supporting details they provided, I assigned an arbitrary value of three to ‘some vessels’ and a value of five to ‘several vessels.’ Those were the two consistent phrases used in these indefinite references. I believe these figures to be conservative, and thus I believe the total estimated number of vessels intercepted – 935 – to be conservative, but modestly so.