From merchant ship to slave ship: the technology of ‘Guineamen’

The Capture of the Slaver Boladora, 6 June 1829. Repro ID BHC0624. Though barely visible here, the painting illustrates deck netting which was employed to prevent escape and suicide attempts by slaves.

It has long been argued that ‘slavers’ were simply regular merchant vessels with modified holds, and this rather simplistic view has stalled research into the changing appearance of slaving vessels in the course of their lengthy ‘triangular’ voyage. As a result, we know little about the personnel and skills required to make these adaptations, or about the impact of these changes upon shipboard living conditions. One aim of my work is to demonstrate that combined analysis of slave shipping legislation, voyage narratives, paintings and ship models can give us a better understanding of the routine series of modifications – mainly carried out as vessels lay off the coast of Africa negotiating for slaves – that transformed merchant ships designed to transport inanimate cargoes into slave ships designed to transport, under duress, cargoes of human beings.

Models of slaving vessels are, of course, an important strand of evidence here. I am attempting to compile a corpus of slave ship models in British museums, and would be grateful to know of examples (of any date) to be found beyond the major British port cities. I should also like to identify further examples of paintings of British slaving vessels depicting temporary modifications such as deck ‘slave houses’, netting, and ‘barricadoes’ (timber partitions stretching across the quarterdeck, thereby securing the area used by slaves brought up from the hold).

Slaves below decks. Lt. Francis Meynell served in HM Sloop Albatross and HM Brig Star, both engaged in anti-slaving operations off the coast of Africa. This painting depicts conditions below decks on the Portuguese/Brazilian vessel Albaroz, captured by HM Albatross in 1845. Repro ID D9317

Contemporary images of conditions and stowage arrangements on board slaving vessels are another important avenue of enquiry. Numerous examples survive, but the majority depict foreign vessels seized by British anti-slavery patrols after 1807. Lt. Francis Meynell’s well-known paintings in the National Maritime Museum fall into this category.

I should be grateful for information on additional paintings and sketches showing onboard conditions above and below decks on slavers, including foreign vessels.