A rare broadside copy of the United States Declaration of Independence, printed in Exeter, New Hampshire, has been identified in the British National Archives.

英國國家檔案館發現了一份在紐罕普夏州埃克塞特印刷的美國《獨立宣言》罕見單幅印刷品。

The document was discovered in May by Michael Scurr, a volunteer cataloger, during the examination of correspondence attributed to Captain Thomas Fitzherbert of the HMS Raisonnable. The artifact was located among papers seized on December 24, 1776, from the Dalton, an 18-gun American privateer vessel operating under the authority of the Continental Congress. The Dalton had been intercepted off the Portuguese coast following a seven-hour pursuit by the HMS Raisonnable, resulting in the incarceration of approximately 120 crew members in Plymouth, England.

這份文件是由一名志願編目員 Michael Scurr 在 5 月檢查 HMS Raisonnable 號的 Thomas Fitzherbert 船長相關書信時發現的。這件文物是在 1776 年 12 月 24 日，由大陸會議授權運作的一艘擁有 18 門炮的美國私掠船 Dalton 號被沒收的文件之中找到。Dalton 號在被 HMS Raisonnable 號追擊 7 小時後，在葡萄牙海岸附近被截獲，導致約 120 名船員被囚禁在英格蘭的普利茅斯。

Historically, the Exeter broadsides were produced by Robert Luis Fowle between July 16 and 19, 1776. Due to the utilization of low-grade rag-made paper and their intended function as ephemeral news vehicles for local consumption, survival rates for these printings are minimal. Prior to this identification, only ten copies were known to exist, all of which were located within the United States. Consequently, this specimen represents the sole known instance of an Exeter printing held outside American jurisdiction.

在歷史上，埃克塞特單幅印刷品是由 Robert Luis Fowle 在 1776 年 7 月 16 日至 19 日之間製作的。由於使用了低等級的碎布紙，且其原定功能是作為本地消費的臨時新聞載體，因此這些印刷品的存活率極低。在這次發現之前，已知僅有 10 份存在，且全部位於美國境內。因此，這個樣本代表了唯一已知存放於美國司法管轄區之外的埃克塞特印刷本。

Institutional analysis suggests the document's presence on a privateer vessel indicates a strategic deployment of ideological reinforcement. Amanda Bevan, lead of the Royal Navy correspondence project, posits that the Declaration may have been read aloud to the crew to align their maritime activities with the broader political objectives of the nascent American state. Furthermore, the document's prolonged anonymity within the archives is attributed to its perceived lack of significance to British naval officers at the time of seizure, as noted by Professor Nicholas Guyatt of the University of Cambridge.

機構分析指出，該文件出現在私掠船上，顯示了一種意識形態強化的策略部署。皇家海軍書信項目負責人 Amanda Bevan 認為，這份《宣言》可能被大聲朗讀給船員聽，以使其海上活動與當時剛成立的美國政府的整體政治目標一致。此外，劍橋大學的 Nicholas Guyatt 教授指出，該文件在檔案館中長期不被注意，是因為當時沒收文件的英國海軍軍官認為其缺乏重要性。

The discovery provides a tangible link to the maritime aspects of the American Revolution and confirms the continued viability of physical archival research.

這次發現提供了一個與美國革命海上方面的實體聯繫，並證實了實體檔案研究依然具有可行性。