About 38,000 Dutch letters from the second half of the 17th to the early 19th centuries,  have been gathering dust for centuries in British archives. They were sent home by sailors and others from abroad but also vice versa by those staying behind who needed to keep in touch with their loved ones. The letters did not reach their destinations: they were taken as loot by privateers and confiscated by the High Court of Admiralty during the wars fought between The Netherlands and England. 

Mere booty for privateers as well as for the British High Court of Admiralty at the time, the letters nowadays represent priceless material for historical linguists of the 21st  century. The confiscated letters of men, women and even children allow us to gain access to the as yet mainly unknown everyday Dutch of the past, the colloquial Dutch of people from the middle and lower classes.

The research-programme Letters as loot. Towards a non-standard view on the history of Dutch, funded by the Netherlandic Scientific Organization, aims at exploring the extraordinary source of so-called sailing letters, which are kept in the National Archives (Kew, UK).

Prof. dr. Marijke van der Wal (history of Dutch) started the large-scale research-programme Letters as loot at the Universiteit Leiden 1 September 2008. She and her team provide up-to-date information about current activities and developments on the website www.brievenalsbuit.nl (both in English and in Dutch). Regularly, interesting letters are  selected and highlighted in the section Monthly letter.