Document from the Court of Admiralty of the State of Pennsylvania signed by Francis Hopkinson (1737 - 1791), Stephen Decatur Sr. and George Augustus Delanoe. Stephen Decatur is described here as the Commander of the Ship called the Royal Louis. It was a tradition in the French Royal Navy to name the largest ship Royal Louis after the French monarch. At least six ships bore this name. However, this was in reference to the American Privateer ship Royal Louis. Stephen Decatur Sr. was an American naval captain in the Revolutionary War and later in the Quasi-War, and the father of Stephen Decatur Jr. George Augustus Delanoe was a Captain in the Royal Navy. The document states "Delanoe...saith that he had the command of the Brigantine and left the Island of Antigua bound with Dispatches to the port of New York, that on the Eighteenth Day of August Instant the said Brigantine was on the High Seas on her passage aforesaid captured and taken by the ship called the Royal Louis commanded by Stephen DeCatur Esquire and that at the Time of such Capture the said Vessel was the property of the King of Great Britain or of some subject or Subjects of the said King." Dated August 1787. From the Francis Hopkinson Family Archives