Black Joke

gasbanni

gasbanni

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...tails-Royal-Navy-fought-stop-slave-trade.html


The black joke was a slave ship that was captured by the Royal Navy it subsequently became one of the most successful slave hunting ships they had, it's exploits were unbelievable it took on far larger ships and it was outgunned but the skill of its crew in capturing and out shooting the slavers.

Originally called the Henriquetta it became HMS Black Joke a very heroic crew fighting the slave ships.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Black_Joke_(1827)


When the Royal Navy ordered that Black Joke be burned, Peter Leonard, surgeon of HMS Dryad, wrote that she was the ship "which has done more towards putting an end to the vile traffic in slaves than all the ships of the station put together.

All in all a vailant little ship.
 
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If it wasn't for the industrial revolution would slavery be economical.
If you kept a slave today it probably wouldn't be worth while,what with all this health and safety regulations.
 
Interesting article. Thank you for posting. I note that the ship was originally a Brazilian slaver. The average life expectancy of a Brazilian owned slave was two years, literally worked to death, and when too weak to work productively another slave would be ordered to strangle the other.
 
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Seafarer1966 said:
Interesting article. Thank you for posting. I note that the ship was originally a Brazilian slaver. The average life expectancy of a Brazilian owned slave was two years, literally worked to death, and when too weak to work productively another slave would be ordered to strangle the other.
Click to expand...

There's a very good book ~
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Royal-Navy-Versus-Slave-Traders/dp/1844156338

I read about black joke in this book a few years back, the anti slavery act was passed in parliment, but it was the royal navy that was the action side of things
Some info here : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Africa_Squadron
They royal navy went up against American, Spanish and Dutch slavers on the high seas but they also used their initiative and sailed up West African rivers and attacked the slavers at their bases it's a real adventure story. What impressed me was how these men really strived to catch the slavers ...no other nation was doing this and they were taking on legitimate ships flying the flag of other countries to stop the trade.

One of the things that's overlooked is that West African tribal chiefs sent their warriors inland to catch fellow blacks to sell to the white traders.

There's a quote at the begining of the book and it goes something like this from memory from a freed slave " For my freedom I thank God, the English and the Royal Navy " enough said, yes we did use slaves as a nation but then we were the only country to stop it and use force to prevent other nations continuing the trade.
 
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