Re: ** The thread for Rants & Odds and Sods **
Posted: 11 Oct 2020, 2:42pm
The West Coast of Africa Station, which was known as the 'preventative squadron' freeing slaves
The Daily Mail had an article on this BLM statue canceling and mentioned the following information on the Royal Navys efforts to intercept the slave trade off the West coast of Africa after slavery was outlawed in the British Empire
..However, it is unclear if the museum (The National Maritime Museum) plans to highlight how, after 1807, the Royal Navy policed the world's oceans to stop other nations and traders from continuing to transport slaves.
Through the West Coast of Africa Station, which was known as the 'preventative squadron', the Navy operated against slavers.
Without the cooperation of all governments still involved in the trade, the operation came at immense cost, with many British lives lost.
The mortality rate for men working in the squadron was 55 per 1,000 men, compared to 10 for fleets sailing in the Mediterranean or closer to home.
By the time of the 1850s, an estimated 25 ships and 3,000 officers and crew were working in the squadron.
The pursuit, capture and sometimes destruction of slave ships was also widely reported in Britain and was very popular among ordinary Britons.
Overall, between 1808 and 1860 the West Africa Squadron captured 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8826801/Lord-Nelsons-colonial-legacy-Royal-Navys-links-slavery-evaluated-museum.html
Thats quite an achievement and the sort of paying for the past that matters not tearing down statues.
Our ancestors & their govts were not all nasty slave traders. Just as well that Britannia Ruled the Waves?
What surprises me that the The National Maritime Museum intend to recaption the UKs naval heroes with their slave trade associationes but never documented and displayed the above. Why not?
I understand that Freetown in Sierra Leone became the destination for many of those freed
The Daily Mail had an article on this BLM statue canceling and mentioned the following information on the Royal Navys efforts to intercept the slave trade off the West coast of Africa after slavery was outlawed in the British Empire
..However, it is unclear if the museum (The National Maritime Museum) plans to highlight how, after 1807, the Royal Navy policed the world's oceans to stop other nations and traders from continuing to transport slaves.
Through the West Coast of Africa Station, which was known as the 'preventative squadron', the Navy operated against slavers.
Without the cooperation of all governments still involved in the trade, the operation came at immense cost, with many British lives lost.
The mortality rate for men working in the squadron was 55 per 1,000 men, compared to 10 for fleets sailing in the Mediterranean or closer to home.
By the time of the 1850s, an estimated 25 ships and 3,000 officers and crew were working in the squadron.
The pursuit, capture and sometimes destruction of slave ships was also widely reported in Britain and was very popular among ordinary Britons.
Overall, between 1808 and 1860 the West Africa Squadron captured 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8826801/Lord-Nelsons-colonial-legacy-Royal-Navys-links-slavery-evaluated-museum.html
Thats quite an achievement and the sort of paying for the past that matters not tearing down statues.
Our ancestors & their govts were not all nasty slave traders. Just as well that Britannia Ruled the Waves?
What surprises me that the The National Maritime Museum intend to recaption the UKs naval heroes with their slave trade associationes but never documented and displayed the above. Why not?
I understand that Freetown in Sierra Leone became the destination for many of those freed