The third HMS Black Joke was probably built in Baltimore in 1824, becoming the Brazilian slave shipHenriquetta.[2] The Royal Navy captured her in September 1827, and purchased her into the service. The Navy renamed her Black Joke, after an English song of the same name, and assigned her to the West Africa Squadron (or Preventive Squadron). Her role was to chase down slave ships, and over her five-year career, she freed thousands of slaves. The Navy deliberately burnt her in May 1832 because her timbers had rotted to the point that she was no longer fit for active service.
Built as a Baltimore clipper (possibly as the vessel Griffen[1]), Henriquetta (also Henri Quatre) was a brig designed to be fast. Brazilian owners purchased her in 1825,[1] and she worked for a slave dealer at Bahia, making £80,000 (about £8,290,000 in 2023, when adjusted for inflation), by running 3,040 slaves across to Brazil in six voyages over a period of three years.[3][4]
HMS Sybille captured her on 6 September 1827.[5] Commodore Francis Collier of Sybille wrote to the Admiralty noting that at the time of her capture, Henriquetta was 257 tons, mounted three guns, and had a crew of 38 men. She had 569 enslaved Africans on board "and had landed at Bahia 3,360 slaves in the last two years".[6]
She was sold at auction in Sierra Leone on 5 January 1828, for £330 (roughly £36,000 in 2023).[4][a]
The Navy took her into service as a tender to Sybille, under the command of Lieutenant William Turner of Sybille. During her service with the Navy, Black Joke's crew included an assistant surgeon, three midshipmen, thirty seamen, and five marines, as well as a number of LiberianKroomen for use on detached boat service. Her armament consisted of one long 18-pounder on a pivot mount.[b]
On 5 January 1828, she sailed with Sybille and the 20-gun post shipEsk. On 12 January, she captured the Spanish schooner Gertrudes (or Gertrudis), which carried 155 slaves.[8][c]Gertrudes had outrun the other two British warships, but not Black Joke.
On 2 April, a Spanish 14-gun brig fired on Black Joke as she approached the brig. After two hours of exchanging shots, and after suffering several casualties, the brig hoisted a flag of truce. She turned out to be the Providentia, of 14 guns and a crew of 80 men. She had fired on the Black Joke as Providentia's captain had been warned that a Colombian privateer answering to the same description as Black Joke was in the area. Turner, therefore, released her. Black Joke suffered no casualties; Providentia had numerous of her crew killed and wounded.[8]
On 1 May 1828, Black Joke fought the large and well-armed pirate Presidenté from Buenos Aires. After two hours of action, and following the death of their captain and two others, as well as the wounding of a number more, the crew of the Presidenté sought a truce. (Black Joke sustained one killed and a number wounded.) The crew of Presidenté underwent an examination before being committed for trial on charges of piracy. Many of her crew appeared to be British or have anglicized names, and they were sent back to England for trial. The next day, Black Joke retook the Portuguese vessel Hosse, which Presidenté had taken as a prize. Presidente was lost at sea on her way to Sierra Leone, but Black Joke earned salvage money for Hosse.[8][d]
On 16 May, Black Joke captured Vengador.[9] She had a crew of 45 men and eight guns, but offered no resistance. She carried 645 slaves, the most ever captured on a single ship.[8][e]
On 14 September, Black Joke was in company with Primrose when Primrose captured the Zephirina or Zephorina.[10]Zephorina was carrying 218 slaves.[f]
On 14 November, Turner received promotion to commander. He turned over command of Black Joke to Lieutenant Henry Downes of Sybille. In November of the same year, Black Joke was forced to leave the coast of Bioko (Fernando Po), due to fever on board.
HMS Black Joke and prizes (clockwise from top left) Spanish brig Providentia, Brazilian brig Vengador, Buenos Ayrean privateer Presidente, brigantine El Hassey, Spanish brig El Almirante, and brigantine Marianna
In January 1829, Black Joke saw a Spanish brig as the Spaniard loaded slaves and set sail for Havana. Black Joke chased the Spaniard for 31 hours, and on 1 February, when the wind dropped, resorted to sweeps to bring herself within gunshot of her prey. El Almirante mounted a total of 14 guns (10 Gover's 18-pounder cannon and four long 9-pounders) and had a crew of 80 men.[g]Black Joke was almost half the size of El Almirante and mounted two guns. Good ship-handling, the discipline of the Royal Navy gun crew, and light winds gave Lieutenant Downes the advantage. In 80 minutes, he defeated and captured the slaver, which suffered 15 dead, including the captain and the first and second mates, and a further 13 wounded, while Black Joke suffered six wounded, two of whom died later.[13]El Almirante held 466 slaves, who were later landed.[14][h]
On 6 March, Black Joke captured the two-gun brigantine Carolina, which carried 420 slaves.[9][i] After this capture, Downes was invalided home because of illness, and received a promotion to commander on his return in recognition of the capture of El Almirante. He had freed a total of 875 slaves.[8]
Black Joke then came under the command of Lieutenant E.J. Parrey. On 11 October, he captured the Christina (or Cristina), a Spanish schooner of three guns and 24 crew members. She was carrying 354 slaves.[8][j] Lieutenant William Coyde replaced Parrey, and on 1 April 1830, captured the Spanish brigantine Manzanares of three guns and 34 crew. Manzanares was carrying 354 slaves.[8][k]
Later that month, Black Joke was in refit in Sierra Leone. Coyde's replacement in Black Joke was Lieutenant William Ramsay.[8]
On 9 November, she captured Dos Amigos, a Baltimore schooner with a crew of 34 and armed with a single carronade; Dos Amigos had 567 African captives aboard, but may have relanded them before her capture.[8] The admiralty put Dos Amigos up for auction, where the commodore of the British Anti-Slavery Squadron, Jonathan Hayes, bought her and named her Fair Rosamond. In December, Black Joke was cruising in the Bight of Benin with Medina.
On 21 or 22 February 1831, Black Joke captured a slaver with 300 slaves on board. This was probably the Spanish schooner Primeira. At the time, Black Joke was acting as a tender to Dryad,[16][l] and was under the temporary command of W L Castle.[8]
HM Brig, Black Joke engaging the Spanish slave brig Maranerito in the Bay of Biafra, 26 April 1831, by George Philip Reinagle
In a famous action on 25 or 26 April 1831, Black Joke was again under Ramsey's command when she captured the Marinerito.[18]Black Joke captured the much larger and more heavily armed Spanish slaver off the island of Bioko. At one point, 15-year-old Midshipman Hinde had to bring Black Joke back alongside Marinerito to rescue the boarding party, including Ramsey, which had become stranded on the Spanish slaver's deck. His rescue effort cost Hinde a bite from an angry parrot.[19]Marinerito had 15 of her crew killed; Black Joke lost one man killed and four wounded, one of whom was Ramsey. Of the 496 slaves on Marinerito, 26 were found to have died and 107 were in so weakened a state that they were landed on Bioko, where more than half subsequently died. The remainder were taken to freedom in Sierra Leone.[m]
In September, in company with Fair Rosamond, Black Joke chased two Spanish slavers into the Bonny River. Lieutenant Ramsey reported that "during the chase, they were seen to throw their slaves overboard, by twos shackled together by the ankles, and left in this manner to sink or swim." Fair Rosamond captured two Spanish vessels, Regulo and Rapido, on 10 September and took them to Sierra Leone, where the Admiralty Court condemned them. Black Joke freed 39 slaves, for which a half bounty was paid to the captain and crew. A further bounty was paid for the 29 slaves who died between the capture and the condemnation of the Regulo.[21][n]
Ramsey received promotion to the rank of commander for the capture of Marinerito and handed over command to Lieutenant H V Huntley.[8] On 15 February 1832, Black Joke captured Spanish schooner Frasquita, alias Centilla, which was armed with two guns and had a crew of 31 men. Frasquitta yielded bounty money for the 290 slaves on board her.[8][o]
In all, between November 1830 and March 1832, Black Joke and Fair Rosamond accounted for 11 of the squadron's take of 13 slavers.
Fate
A survey held on the Black Joke in 1832 stated that her timbers were rotten, and that "she is not, in our opinion, a vessel calculated fit for H.M. Service." Discussions about further use of Black Joke included her use as a government vessel for Sierra Leone. She was due to be transferred to the governor when the rear admiral changed his mind and ordered that Black Joke be destroyed. She was burnt on 3 May 1832[25] and her stores sold. The surveyors attached examples of her timber; all that now remains of the famous slave-chaser is an envelope filled with brown dust in The National Archives. In 1958, "a small quantity of the 'testings' of the timber of Black Joke were sent to Lagos for exhibition in the museum there".[26]
When the Royal Navy ordered that Black Joke be burned, Peter Leonard, surgeon of HMSDryad, 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."[27][28]
Notes
↑ For captured slave ships in this time, bounty money was based on the number of slaves freed, not on the value of the ship, which became government property. A first-class share of the bounty money, i.e., the amount accruing to Collier, was £1946 13s 10½d; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth £5 9s 11¼d.[7]
↑ Some accounts give her two guns, but do not specify their type.
↑ A first-class share of the bounty money was worth £393 4s 8½d; a sixth-class share was worth £1 9s 9¾d.[7]
↑ A first-class share of the bounty money was worth £337 17s 10½d; a sixth-class share was worth £1 7s 5¼d.[7]
↑ A first-class share of the bounty money was worth £1496 12s 5d; a sixth-class share was worth £5 16s 1½d.[7]
↑ A first-class share of the bounty money was worth £647 9s 3d; a sixth-class share was worth £3 12s 6d.[11]
↑ John Gover designed a new type of gun carriage in the late 1790s or early 1800s that enabled the guns to be handled by smaller gun crews and the guns to be stored alongside the rails rather than perpendicular to them.[12]
↑ A first-class share of the bounty money was worth £1014 5d; a sixth-class share was worth £3 15s 5¾d.[7]
↑ A first-class share of the bounty money was worth £893 3s 6d; a sixth-class share was worth £3 9s 2¼d.[7]
↑ A first class share of the bounty money was worth £696 7d; a sixth-class share was worth £2 12s 2d.[15]
↑ A first class share of the bounty money was worth £815 5s 11d; a sixth-class share was worth £2 19s 11d.[15]
↑ A first-class share, which would have accrued to the captain of Dryad, was worth £369 2s 6d. A second first-class share, which would probably have accrued to Ramsey, was worth £184 11s 3d; a sixth-class share was worth £1 3s 6¾d.[17]
↑ A first-class share was worth £533 8s 9d; a sixth-class share was worth £1 18s 6¾d.[20]
↑ A first-class share was worth £383 8s 1d; a sixth-class share was worth £1 8s 6d.[22] Later it was discovered that nine men had been left off the prize list for the capture of Potosi (by Fair Rosamond), and Rapido and Regulo, and the holders of sixth-class shares were obliged to return 1s 0¾d for distribution to these men.[23] However, a prize court reinstated a half-bounty for 29 slaves who had died prior to the Regulo's condemnation. A captain's share was £13 10s, a commander's share was £6 5s, and a sixth-class share was 11½d.[24]
↑ A first-class share was worth £303 3s 6d; a sixth-class share was worth £1 1s 9¾d.[23]
↑ Lloyd, Christopher (1968) The Navy and the Slave Trade: The Suppression of the African Slave Trade in the Nineteenth Century.(Routledge). ISBN0-7146-1894-2
HMS Pelorus was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy. She was built in Itchenor, England and launched on 25June 1808. She saw action in the Napoleonic Wars and in the War of 1812. On anti-slavery patrol off West Africa, she captured four slavers and freed some 1350 slaves. She charted parts of Australia and New Zealand and participated in the First Opium War (1839–1842) before becoming a merchantman and wrecking in 1844 while transporting opium to China.
HMS Cherub was an 18-gun Royal Navy Cormorant-class sloop built in Dover in 1806. She participated in two major campaigns in the West Indies during the Napoleonic Wars, and one major engagement in the Pacific during the War of 1812, all each of which earned her crews clasps to the Naval General Service Medal. The Navy sold her in 1820.
HMS Dryad was a fifth-rate sailing frigate of the Royal Navy that served for 64 years, at first during the Napoleonic Wars and then in the suppression of slavery. She fought in a notable single-ship action in 1796 when she captured the French frigate Proserpine, an action that would later earn her crew the Naval General Service Medal. Dryad was broken up at Portsmouth in 1860.
Sibylle was a 38-gun Hébé-class frigate of the French Navy. She was launched in 1791 at the dockyards in Toulon and placed in service in 1792. After the 50-gun fourth rate HMS Romney captured her in 1794, the British took her into service as HMS Sybille. She served in the Royal Navy until disposed of in 1833. While in British service, Sybille participated in three notable single-ship actions, in each case capturing a French vessel. On anti-slavery duties off West Africa from July 1827 to June 1830, Sybille captured many slavers and freed some 3,500 slaves. She was finally sold in 1833 in Portsmouth.
Néréide was a Sibylle-class, 32-gun, copper-hulled frigate of the French Navy. On 22 December 1797 HMS Phoebe captured her and she was taken into British service as HMS Nereide. The French recaptured her at the Battle of Grand Port, only to lose her again when the British took Isle de France, in 1810. After the Battle of Grand Port she was in such a poor condition that she was laid up and sold for breaking up in 1816.
HMS Racehorse was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Hamilton & Breeds and launched in 1806 at Hastings. She served in the English Channel, where she captured a small privateer, and in the East Indies, where she participated in the capture of Isle de France and the operations around it. She was wrecked in 1822.
HMS Astraea was a Royal Navy 36-gun fifth rate Apollo-class frigate, launched- in 1810 at Northam. She participated in the Battle of Tamatave and in an inconclusive single-ship action with the French frigate Etoile. Astrea was broken up in 1851.
HMS Forester was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by John King and launched in 1806 at Dover. She had a relatively uneventful career before the Navy sold her in 1819.
HMS Circe was a Royal Navy 32-gun fifth-rate frigate, built by Master Shipwright Joseph Tucker at Plymouth Dockyard, and launched in 1804. She served in the Caribbean during the Napoleonic Wars, and participated in an action and a campaign for which in 1847 in the Admiralty authorised the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasps. The action, off the Pearl Rock, near Saint-Pierre, Martinique, was a debacle that cost Circe dearly. However, she also had some success in capturing privateers and a French brig. She was sold in 1814.
HMS Brazen was a 28-gun Royal Navy Bittern-class ship sloop, launched in 1808.
HMS Severn was an Endymion-class frigate of the British Royal Navy, launched in 1813 as one of five heavy frigates built to match the powerful American frigates. The shortage of oak meant that she was built of "fir", which meant a considerably shortened lifespan. Nonetheless, the ship saw useful service, especially at the bombardment of Algiers in 1816, before being broken up in 1825.
HMS Grasshopper was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop built at Portsmouth Dockyard by Nicholas Diddams and launched in 1813. She was the second ship of the class to bear the name; the first Grasshopper had been stranded at Texel and surrendered to the Batavian Republic on Christmas Day 1811. The present Grasshopper remained in service until sold in 1832. She then became a whaler in the Southern Whale Fisheries, making four voyages between 1832 and 1847.
HMS Monkey was a schooner of the British Royal Navy, launched in 1826 at Jamaica and assigned to the West Indies squadron. She made three notable captures of slaver ships, one involving a single-ship action against a slave ship much larger and more heavily armed than herself. She was wrecked in 1831 near Tampico.
HMS Comus was a 22-gun Laurel-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1806. In 1807 she took part in one notable single-ship action and was at the capture of Copenhagen. In 1815 she spent six months with the West Africa Squadron suppressing the slave trade during which time she captured ten slavers and freed 500-1,000 slaves. She was wrecked in 1816 with no loss of life.
HMS Colibri was the French naval Curieux-class brig Colibri, launched in 1808, that the British captured in 1809 and took into the Royal Navy under her existing name. She spent her time in British service on the North American station based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. During the War of 1812, Colibri served mostly in blockading the American coast and capturing privateers and merchant ships. She foundered in 1813 in Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, but without loss of life.
HMS Vesta was an Adonis-class schooner of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic War. She was built at Bermuda using Bermudan cedar and completed in 1806. She appears to have had an astonishingly uneventful decade-long career before the Admiralty sold her in 1816. She became a merchantman, sailing between the United Kingdom and Newfoundland until May 1823 when she sank after hitting an iceberg.
HMS Speedwell was the mercantile Royal George, which the Royal Navy purchased in 1815 and converted to a 5-gun schooner. During her career in the West Indies, she helped capture or destroy a number of pirate vessels, and capture several slave ships transporting enslaved people. The Royal Navy sold her at Jamaica in 1834.
HMS Thais was built for the British Royal Navy in 1806 and was the name-vessel of her class of fire ships. Between 1811 and 1813 she served in the West Africa Squadron, which was attempting to suppress the slave trade. During this service she captured several slave traders and an American privateer. She made one voyage to the East Indies. Thais was sold in 1818. She then became a merchantman. She was last listed in 1826.
HMS Union was the mercantile City of Kingston that the Royal Navy purchased in 1823 for service as a 3-gun schooner. She served in the suppression of the slave trade in the West Indies. She was wrecked in 1828.
HMS Esk was a Cyrus-class ship-sloop launched at Ipswich in 1813. During the War of 1812 she captured one United States privateer, and fought an inconclusive action with another. Between 1825 and 1827 Esk was part of the West Africa Squadron, engaged in suppressing the trans-Atlantic slave trade, during which period she captured a number of slave ships. A prize she had taken also engaged in a notable single ship action. The Royal Navy sold Esk in 1829. Green, Wigram, and Green purchased her and between 1829 and 1845 she made four voyages in the British southern whale fishery as the whaler Matilda.
Sullivan, Anthony (2020). Britain's War Against the Slave Trade: The Operations of the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron 1807–1867. Frontline. ISBN9781526717962.
Tinnie, Dinizulu Gene (2008). "The Slaving Brig Henriqueta and her Evil Sisters: A Case Study in the 19th-Century Slave Trade to Brazil". Journal of African American History. 93 (4): 509–531. doi:10.1086/JAAHv93n4p509. S2CID140988776.
Villiers, Allan (1955). "The Drive for Speed at Sea". American Heritage. 6 (6).
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