The Danish West Indies or Danish Antilles or Danish Virgin Islands were a Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas with 32 square miles (83 km2); Saint John with 19 square miles (49 km2); and Saint Croix with 84 square miles (220 km2). The islands have belonged to the United States since they were purchased in 1917. Water Island was part of the Danish West Indies until 1905, when the Danish state sold it to the East Asiatic Company, a private shipping company.
Christiansted National Historic Site commemorates urban colonial development of the Virgin Islands. It features 18th and 19th century structures in the heart of Christiansted, the capital of the former Danish West Indies on St. Croix Island.
The Pride of Baltimore was a reproduction of a typical early 19th-century "Baltimore clipper" topsail schooner, commissioned to represent Baltimore, Maryland. This was a style of vessel made famous by its success as a privateer commerce raider, a small warship in the War of 1812 (1812–1815) against British merchant shipping and the world-wide British Royal Navy. After the end of the war, Baltimore Clippers did not have sufficient cargo capacity for normal merchant trade, so some were used in the illegal opium trade into China and vessels of the same type were used in the transatlantic slave trade from Africa.
A Baltimore clipper is a fast sailing ship historically built on the mid-Atlantic seaboard of the United States of America, especially at the port of Baltimore, Maryland. An early form of clipper, the name is most commonly applied to two-masted schooners and brigantines. These vessels may also be referred to as Baltimore Flyers.
HMS York was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 24 March 1796. She served briefly in the West Indies where she captured numerous small vessels. She was wrecked in 1804.
Liverpool Packet was originally the American slave ship Severn, built at Baltimore and captured in 1811. She became a privateer schooner from Liverpool, Nova Scotia, that captured 50 American vessels in the War of 1812. American privateers captured Liverpool Packet in 1813, but she failed to take any prizes during the four months before she was recaptured. She was repurchased by her original Nova Scotia owners and returned to raiding American commerce. Liverpool Packet was the most successful privateer vessel ever to sail out of a Canadian port.
HMS Arab was a 22-gun post ship of the Royal Navy. She was formerly the 18-gun French privateer Brave, which the British captured in 1798. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars until she was sold in 1810.
The West Indies Squadron, or the West Indies Station, was a United States Navy squadron that operated in the West Indies in the early nineteenth century. It was formed due to the need to suppress piracy in the Caribbean Sea, the Antilles and the Gulf of Mexico region of the Atlantic Ocean. This unit later engaged in the Second Seminole War until being combined with the Home Squadron in 1842. From 1822 to 1826 the squadron was based out of Saint Thomas Island until the Pensacola Naval Yard was constructed.
HDMS Lougen was a brig of 18 guns, launched in 1791, and the name-vessel of her class of six brigs designed by the naval architect Ernst Stibolt. She was the first Danish warship to be copper-sheathed. She was active protecting Danish merchant shipping and suppressing pirates in the Mediterranean and in the Caribbean. In March 1801, she fought off the British privateer Experiment and the 22-gun warship HMS Arab in a single action. When the British captured the Danish West Indies in 1801, Lougen was part of the booty. The British later returned her to Denmark where she was broken up in 1802.
Many vessels have been named Comet, after the astronomical object comet.
Royal Edward was launched in 1782 in France as Alexandre. The British captured her c.1796, and new owners changed her name. She then sailed for a few years as a West Indiaman before completing four voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She returned to the West India trade after leaving enslaving, and then traded more generally. She was condemned as unseaworthy and broken up in Bengal in 1815.
Hannah was built at Liverpool in 1797. She made three voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She then made one voyage as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. Next, she became a West Indiaman and was lost in 1811.
Thomas Kemp was a Baltimore shipbuilder, known for building some of the fastest and best known privateers of the War of 1812, such as Rossie, Comet, Patapsco, Chasseur, and Lynx.
The 1916 Virgin Islands hurricane was a strong tropical cyclone that inflicted extensive damage across the Virgin Islands in October 1916. It was the region's most destructive storm since at least the 1867 San Narciso hurricane; Consul General Christopher Payne and archaeologist Theodoor de Booy considered the 1916 storm as the archipelago's most damaging. Its peak intensity was equivalent to a Category 3 on the modern Saffir–Simpson scale. The storm began as a tropical depression southeast of Barbados on October 6, though little is known about the storm's origins or its developing stages; by the time its center was first located, the cyclone was already a hurricane and causing damage in the Virgin Islands. After forming, the storm moved northwest into the eastern Caribbean Sea and strengthened quickly. Rough seas were produced in the Windward Islands at Dominica and Saint Kitts as the storm passed nearby between October 7–8, damaging coastal villages.
Kongen af Assianthe was launched in Sweden in 1797.
Tamer, was a French prize. She made two complete voyages as a slave ship from 1801 in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She foundered in 1803 off Barbados as she was delivering her captives on her third slave voyage. Before leaving the coast of Angola on this last voyage, she had captured a French slave ship in a sanguinary single ship action. Tamer sailed with her prize, which rescued Tamer's crew and slaves when Tamer foundered. The insurers refused to pay on Tamer's loss, on the grounds that she had deviated from sailing in the most expeditious manner by periodically waiting for her prize to catch up. The court supported the insurers on appeal.
Tom was launched in 1780 in America, possibly under another name. She first appeared in British records in 1792. From 1792 Tom participated as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She made two complete voyages from Liverpool. French frigates captured her in 1794 while she was on her third voyage, but before she could acquire any captives.
Several vessels have been named Vigilant:
Ann was launched at Chester in 1792 as a West Indiaman. From 1796 she made eight complete voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She participated in several single ship actions. On her first voyage she repelled an attack by a French privateer. On her second a privateer captured her but she was recaptured. On her ninth voyage a French privateer again captured her, but this time her captor plundered and then released her. She sank on 24 May 1810 in the Old Dock at Liverpool, but was salvaged.
United States
Danish West Indies
