| History | |
|---|---|
 Great Britain | |
| Owner | Granville Sharp |
| Launched | 1787, Malden? |
| Fate | Last listed 1804 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen | 34, or 84 (bm) |
| Sail plan | Sloop |
Lapwing was a sloop launched in 1787, that in 1790 traded between London and Africa. She then disappeared from Lloyd's Register between 1793 and 1798. She reappeared in 1799 as a Bristol coaster and was last listed in 1804.
Lloyd's Register gave her master as Williams and her owner as "G. Sharpe". [1]
Granville Sharp acquired Lapwing to facilitate the work of the St George's Bay Company in providing a safe haven for destitute Africans in Sierra Leone and elsewhere.
The broker for the company purchased Lapwing for £186 on 12 February 1790 at the Customs House. [2] Lapwing herself was in the "condemned hold", a location in Wapping, London where ships seized for smuggling were held before Customs disposed of them. [3] [lower-alpha 1]
Lapwing set sail for Sierra Leone in late 1790 carrying relief supplies for the settlers there. She was at Bance Island when the enslaving ship Duke of Buccleugh arrived in June 1791 carrying as passengers Dr. Alexander Falconbridge, his wife Anna Maria, and brother William, of the Clapham Sect and the Anti-Slavery Society, who had come out with the intent of reorganising the failed settlement of freed slaves in Granville Town, Sierra Leone. [4]
On the return journey in 1791 Lapwing brought back the Falconbridges and carried the Temne prince John Naimbanna to London. During his stay in London, Naimbanna became friends with Henry Thornton and Granville, and when Naimbanna converted to Christianity he adopted the forenames Henry and Granville in their honour.
Lapwing disappeared from Lloyd's Register between 1793 and 1798. However, a guide to the Isle of Man for 1797-8 reported that Lapwing, Cubbon, master, carried passengers from Liverpool to Douglas, Isle of Man, and that she had seven beds and a large stateroom. It goes on to say, "this once belonged to T. Whalley, Esq.; M.P." [5] She was one of two vessels that carried the mails and passengers as well as a cargo, and usually made the trip in under 24 hours. [6] Lapwing reappeared in 1799 with W. Cubbon, master, J.J. Bacon, owner, place of building Malden, and trade Bristol - Martinique. [7] That entry remained unchanged through the Lloyd's Register for 1804. The Register of Shipping for 1804 gave her master as Cubbins, her owner as J. Bacon, and her trade Bristol coaster.
The Sierra Leone Company was the corporate body involved in founding the second British colony in Africa on 11 March 1792 through the resettlement of Black Loyalists who had initially been settled in Nova Scotia after the American Revolutionary War. The company came about because of the work of the ardent abolitionists, Granville Sharp, Thomas Clarkson, Henry Thornton, and Thomas's brother, John Clarkson, who is considered one of the founding fathers of Sierra Leone. The company was the successor to the St. George Bay Company, a corporate body established in 1790 that re-established Granville Town in 1791 for the 60 remaining Old Settlers.
Alexander Falconbridge was a British surgeon who took part in four voyages in slave ships between 1782 and 1787. In time he became an abolitionist and in 1788 published An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa. In 1791 he was sent by the Anti-Slavery Society to Granville Town, Sierra Leone, a community of freed slaves, where he died a year later in 1792.
The British Royal Navy purchased HMS Shark on the stocks in 1775. She was launched in 1776, and in 1778 converted to a fireship and renamed HMS Salamander. The Navy sold her in 1783. She then became the mercantile Salamander. In the 1780s she was in the northern whale fishery. In 1791 she transported convicts to Australia. She then became a whaling ship in the southern whale fishery for a number of years, before becoming a general transport and then a slave ship. In 1804 the French captured her, but the Royal Navy recaptured her. Although she is last listed in 1811, she does not appear in Lloyd's List (LL) ship arrival and departure (SAD) data after 1804.
John Naimbanna (17??–1793) was a Temne Prince who visited London in 1791–1793.
Butterworth was launched in 1778 in France as the highly successful 32-gun privateer Américaine, of Granville. The British Royal Navy captured her early in 1781. She first appeared in a commercial role in 1784 as America, and was renamed in 1785 as Butterworth. She served primarily as a whaler in the Greenland whale fisheries. New owners purchased her in 1789. She underwent a great repair in 1791 that increased her size by almost 20%. She is most famous for her role in the "Butterworth Squadron", which took her and two ship's tenders on an exploration, sealing, otter fur, and whaling voyage to Alaska and the Pacific Coast of North America. She and her consorts are widely credited with being the first European vessels to enter, in 1794, what is now Honolulu harbour. After her return to England in 1795, Butterworth went on three more whaling voyages to the South Pacific, then Africa, and then the South Pacific again. In 1802 she was outward bound on her fourth of these voyage, this to the South Pacific, when she was lost.
Amazon was launched in France in 1775 under another name and taken in prize in 1780. British owners named her Amazon and she became a West Indiaman. In 1782 an American letter-of-marque, a former British Royal Navy frigate, captured her, but the Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. She then became Dumfries. She may have been renamed again. She reappeared as Amazon in 1790, and traded between London and Smyrna. In 1798 she made one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC) between 1797 and 1798. She then made three voyages as a slave ship between 1800 and 1804. Her subsequent history is currently obscure.
Crescent was launched at Rotherhithe in 1790. She initially traded with the Levant, particularly Smyrna. After the outbreak of war with France she may have tried her hand as a privateer. In 1796–1798 she made a voyage to the East Indies, almost surely on behalf of the British East India Company (EIC). A French privateer captured her but the British Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. In 1802-1804 she made one voyage as a slave ship carrying slaves from West Africa to Jamaica. In 1805 she became a whaler. She was lost in 1807 off Patagonia while homeward bound from her first whaling voyage.
Eliza was launched in 1789 in New Brunswick. Between 1791 and 1800 she made six voyages as a whaler. She next made one voyage as a slave ship. She then disappears from online resources.
Wilding was launched at Liverpool in 1788 and spent much of her career as a West Indiaman, sailing between Liverpool and Jamaica. During this time, in November 1794, she participated in a single-ship action during which her opponent, a French privateer, blew up. In 1798 after a series of captures and recaptures she briefly became a transport for the French Navy, but a final recapture returned her to British hands. Later, she made one voyage to the South Pacific as a whaler, and one voyage to the Cape of Good Hope as a victualler for the 1795-1796 invasion of the Cape. She traded with the West Indies, Africa, the United States, and Russia. Her crew abandoned her in September 1824, dismasted and in a sinking state.
Andersons was launched at Poole in 1798. She then made seven voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. After the end of the British slave trade in 1807 her owners sold her to new owners who employed her as a West Indiaman. By 1810 she was registered in Whitby. She then served as a general merchant vessel until she was wrecked in 1823.
Cornwall was launched in 1794 as a West Indiaman. In a little more than three years later she had left on the first of three whaling voyages to the Southern Whale Fishery. On her first whaling voyage she captured a Spanish ship and fought off a French privateer. After her third whaling voyage Cornwall returned to the West Indies trade. Around 1817 new owners sent her to India where a Parsi merchant purchased her. She traded in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, and also participated as a transport in a naval expedition to the Persian Gulf. She was last listed in 1824.
Kingston was launched at Bristol in 1780 as a West Indiaman. From 1798 she made ten voyages as a whaler. Somewhat unusually, on her first voyage she participated in the capture of a Spanish merchant ship. She then briefly sailed between England and Quebec, and was last listed in 1819.
Fonthill was a ship built in France in 1781 and was probably taken in prize in 1782. Fonthill sailed as a West Indiaman between 1783 and 1791, then became a whaler southern whale fishery and made four whaling voyages between 1791 and 1799. On her third voyage she took back from Cape Town a Dutch captain whose vessel had been captured bringing in arms and ammunition from Batavia to stir up unrest against the British at the Cape. After refitting, in 1800, Fonthill became a whaler in the northern whale fishery. Fonthill was last listed, with stale data, in 1810, but whose last reported whaling voyage took place in 1806.
Angola was launched in 1799 at Lancaster. She became a Liverpool-based slave ship that had made four voyages carrying captives from West Africa to the West Indies. The French had captured her in 1804 on her fifth voyage. Her captors renamed her Tigre, but the Royal Navy recaptured her late in 1804.
HMS Harpy was launched at Liverpool in 1777, the British Royal Navy having purchased her on the stocks. The Navy sold her in 1783. As Harpy she made voyages to the northern whale fishery, and one voyage as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. The Sierra Leone Company then purchased her. A French naval squadron captured her in September 1794. The French Navy briefly took her into service as Harcourt, and then Harpie. She was struck in 1796.
Duke of Buccleugh, was launched at Yarmouth in 1783. In 1789 she became a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She made five complete enslaving voyages. On her fifth she had to repel an attack by a French privateer in a single ship action. A French privateer captured her in September 1797 after she had delivered her captives on her sixth voyage.
Several ships have been named John:
Concord was launched at Gravesend in 1784 and initially traded between England and Ireland and then with the West Indies. Between 1786 and 1806 she made 11 voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. After her last slave trading voyage, new owners started sailing Concord between the United Kingdom and Newfoundland. She foundered in 1807 while sailing from Portugal to Newfoundland.
Ocean was a sloop launched in 1790 at Plymouth. Circa 1792 the Sierra Leone Company purchased her and sailed her in support of their colony. In 1793 the Company sent her on a voyage along the coast to trade for African commodities that she brought back to Freetown for re-export. The Company judged the experiment a success and the next year it sent several more vessels to do the same. The French captured Ocean in August 1796 and the Royal Navy recaptured her in January 1798. Her subsequent fate is obscure.