A cache of more than 100 letters from relatives of French sailors who were captured by British soldiers in 1758 during the Seven Years' War was accidentally discovered at the National Archives in London. The letters have not been printed since they were sent, reports “RIA Novosti” with reference to The Guardian.
The letters are addressed to the crew of the French ship “Galatea”, captured by the British during the fighting. In them, relatives and friends of sailors express their love and support, share news from home and talk about their daily worries.
In one of the letters, the mother of a young sailor, Nicolas Quesnel, complains that he writes to his fiancée more than to her.
British authorities confiscated the letters and, finding that the correspondence had no military value, left them for safekeeping. So, the unopened letters were forgotten until they were accidentally discovered by one of the professors at Cambridge University.