Historian Renaux Morieux has found dozens of unopened letters in British archives from relatives and lovers of French sailors whose ship was captured by a British vessel in the 18th century. These rare documents, which Morieux describes as having given him "the greatest emotion I've experienced as a historian", offer a fascinating insight into the lives of sailors and their families in the 1700s, from the wife of a senior naval officer to an elderly mother reproaching her son for not writing. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES