West Africa Squadron
In 1807 Britain declared war on the slave trade, and a small fleet of Royal Navy ships formed the frontline
In 1808 Britain set about hunting down slavers across the Atlantic Ocean
In the early hours of 1 February 1829 the Spanish slaver El Almirante turned to face the Royal Navy ship that had been pursuing it doggedly for the past 31 hours. Bigger than its opponent and carrying 14 guns as opposed to the British ship’s single 18-pounder, the Spanish vessel had every chance of fighting its way to freedom. The fate of the 466 slaves on board El Almirante hung in the balance, as HMS Black Joke closed in under unusually calm weather conditions, resorting to oars to get within range of its prey.
A short, fierce firefight broke out, and over the course of 80 minutes El Almirante suffered 28 casualties, including the death of its captain. The Spanish ship had become another victim of one of the West Africa Squadron’s most effective ships, which was somewhat ironic – the Black Joke had started life as a slaver, and its speed had originally been intended to evade the British vessels aiming to stamp out the slave trade.
Abolition and war
Britain’s decision to abolish slavery has been described as “the most expensive
“BRITAIN’S DECISION TO ABOLISH SLAVERY HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS ‘THE MOST EXPENSIVE INTERNATIONAL MORAL EFFORT IN MODERN WORLD HISTORY’”
international moral effort in modern world history”. It came at the end of an era in which British ships had carried more than half of the slaves taken from Africa’s west coast, transporting them to the British West Indies, the United States and destinations in South America. Britain’s sugar-producing colonies in the West Indies, which produced 55 per cent of the world’s sugar, were totally dependent on slave labour. It’s little wonder, then, that when Britain passed two acts, in 1806 and 1807, to abolish the slave trade, the rest of the world was suspicious of its motives. The 1807 act made it illegal for slaves to be imported to British West Indian colonies, banned British citizens from involvement in the trade and forbade British ports from accepting foreign slave ships.
Britain was not the first European power to ban the trade – Denmark had done so in 1792 and revolutionary France had briefly outlawed it in 1794, only to reinstate it in 1802 under Napoleon (which did much to invigorate the antislavery movement in Britain). Neither Denmark nor France, however, were in a position to make as much impact as Britain.
When Britain unilaterally abolished the slave trade, war in Europe had been raging for years, first against the forces of revolutionary France and then Napoleon. With the navy therefore engaged in a major conflict, when the decision was made to first send ships to patrol the west coast of Africa for slavers it was a pathetically small force. The frigate HMS Solebay and sloop HMS Derwent were all that could be spared by a navy straining to maintain control of the seaways of Europe. This two-ship force was not yet the famed West Africa Squadron – the ships were classed as being on ‘particular service’ and it was not until 1819 that an independent command, under a commodore, was established.
By then the number of ships had risen to six and Sir George Collier became the first commodore of the West Africa Squadron. An experienced seaman, having fought in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 against the United States, his flagship was the 36-gun HMS Creole.
The size of the squadron fluctuated over the half-century of its existence, hitting a peak of 30 in 1847 but was more usually somewhere in the teens. It was never enough to effectively patrol the vast area that encompassed the slave routes, but some help came in 1841,
“THE IDEA THAT BRITAIN WAS ENGAGED IN A NOBLE, HIGHLY MORAL CRUSADE ALSO PLAYED WELL AMONG PUBLIC OPINION AND THE BRITISH PUBLIC’S VIEW OF ITS RIGHTEOUS ROLE IN THE WORLD”
when HMS Pluto joined the squadron, armed with up to four guns. It was the first paddle steamer to take part in patrols and could maintain a high speed under calm conditions and steam up inlets and rivers, making it an effective pursuit vessel. By 1852 there were ten steamers on station.
The ships of the squadron were generally a far cry from the heavily armed men-of-war that made up the front line of the Royal Navy. Anti-slavery work was more a matter of speed, but the activities of the patrols still captured the imagination of the British public. Stirring tales of pursuits and battles with slavers found their way into the newspapers and were immortalised in oil paintings. The idea that Britain was engaged in a noble, highly moral crusade also played well among public opinion and the British public’s view of its righteous role in the world.
A resilient trade
The fact remained that, with such a small number of ships, little impression could be made on the slave trade. Diplomacy had to be employed as well and was arguably more effective. During the Congress of Vienna, which began in November 1814, the map of post-war Europe was redrawn (Napoleon’s brief reappearance and defeat at Waterloo ultimately made little impact on the negotiations).
Britain’s representative, Viscount Castlereagh, was determined to also secure declarations of support for Britain’s anti-slavery stance. His counterparts from the other powers at the congress commented that he was sometimes hamstrung in negotiations because of his insistence on pushing through anti-slavery measures, although Castlereagh himself referred to it as “a rather minor detail”. His efforts bore fruit – France agreed to abolish the slave trade within five years, while Spain and Portugal made less definitive promises to move towards abolition.
Despite this, slave ships could easily switch their flag to that of a nation that still supported the trade, and many of them were sleeker and faster than the often old and battered Royal Navy ships that patrolled against them.
The economic imperative also ensured that slavery remained very much an active business. A steep decline in Britain’s share of the sugar market was down to the fact that slave labour enabled cheaper production, and British plantations could no longer compete on a level playing field. There were plenty of nations willing to fill the gap.
Between 1811 and 1850 an average of half a million slaves were transported across the Atlantic every decade and, until rules were tightened, a slaver in danger of being captured could simply jettison its cargo of living people
to avoid seizure. Against this, the West Africa Squadron liberated an estimated 150,000 slaves over the five decades of its existence.
Against the odds, the squadron doggedly pursued its mission and scored some notable successes. Encounters had an unusually personal touch – rather than fleets engaging, as had often been the case during the Napoleonic Wars, these were single-ship clashes with all the glamour of a prize fight. Pickle versus Voladora, Buzzard versus Formidable and
Acorn versus Gabriel were contests that fired the public imagination. The reality of life on the West Africa station, riven with disease, blighted by boredom and often marked by the frustration of simply being unable to catch the speedy slave ships, was in marked contrast to the excitement that played out in the pages of the popular press, but public support was important if the effort was to be maintained.
Gunboat diplomacy
The reluctance of many powers to do more than talk about ending the slave trade and the outright refusal of many others to do even that left Britain in a quandary. There were limits to the level of persuasion and coercion that could be applied to powerful nations such as France and the United States.
The case was very different with African peoples who refused to toe the line. Punitive raids could be mounted in the coastal regions of West Africa to bring rebellious leaders to heel. In 1850 the Zaro, living near Sierra Leone, struck out against the British decree, declaring war on neighbouring peoples who had agreed to end their trade in slaves. The six-gun brig HMS Heroine, patrolling the shoreline near the Gallinas River, dispatched a tiny expeditionary force of sailors and marines to deal with the situation. Together with men from allied tribes,
“SLAVE SHIPS COULD EASILY SWITCH THEIR FLAG TO THAT OF A NATION THAT STILL SUPPORTED THE TRADE, AND MANY OF THEM WERE SLEEKER AND FASTER THAN THE ROYAL NAVY SHIPS”
they hunted down a Zaro raiding party and obliterated it at the small town of Siman.
The following year a larger expedition was mounted against the oba (king) of Lagos. Britain had decided to try its familiar (and often successful) colonial tactic of pitting rival tribal leaders against each other by threatening to support Oba Kosoko’s enemies if he did not agree to suspend his slave-trading. This was in essence merely a pretext for asserting British dominance in the region. The message was to be delivered by a diplomat, John Beecroft, but would have the weight of the West Africa Squadron behind it.
No fewer than five Royal Navy ships had gathered off the coast, providing the men for a formidable expedition. It approached Kosoko’s stronghold under cover of a white flag, but the show of strength was provocative. A fleet of 22 small boats carrying around 300 sailors, marines and West African ‘Kroomen’ (experienced and respected sailors from the Kru coast), descended on Lagos and were met with ferocious resistance. The landing quickly became a debacle and the British were forced to withdraw.
Kosoko was then threatened with a naval bombardment if he refused to surrender, a
threat that was carried out on 26 December 1851. Kosoko was forced to flee two days later and the following month his replacement, Oba Akitoye, signed a treaty with Britain to end the slave trade in the region.
The tide turns
Such strong-arm tactics could not work with the major powers, but gradually global opinion shifted against slavery. France emancipated its slaves in 1848, Brazil began enforcing its own ban by 1850 and Cuba followed suit in 1867, while a protracted and bloody civil war put an end to the ‘peculiar institution’ of slavery in the United States. America had contributed its own ‘Africa Squadron’ to the fight against the trade, but it had enjoyed far less success than its British counterpart, and the potential benefit of cooperation with British ships was never exploited.
Despite the success of the West Africa Squadron and the glamorisation of its activities in the papers, it remained one of the least popular postings in the Royal Navy. The mortality rate was 55 out of every 1,000 men – more than five times the rate of a crew serving in healthier climates closer to home.
Britain’s commitment had proved remarkable – and costly. From its control of 55 per cent of the global sugar market prior to the ban, Britain’s share had dropped to just 15 per cent by 1850. Around 5,000 British sailors and soldiers died attempting to enforce the ban, with casualties mostly attributable to the unhealthy conditions in the areas patrolled. Land-based garrisons at locations such as Sierra Leone suffered most in this regard. Around 1.8 per cent of British national income was lost every year for 60 years, and the ban antagonised many of the world’s other powers, sometimes almost leading to hostilities. War had briefly flared up between Britain and Brazil in 1850, and tensions with France had reached a critical level over the right of Royal Navy ships to search French vessels. Despite the cost to the anti-slavery effort, the right was suspended in 1845 to avert war.
The West Africa Squadron had played its part as well as it could, capturing around 1,600 ships and making the trans-atlantic routes a more perilous crossing for slavers. However, Britain’s commitment was not yet over. Even after the slave trade had been crippled on Africa’s west coast, it continued on the east. A separate effort would be mounted there, with many of the men who had cut their teeth in the West Africa Squadron leading the way.
“THE MORTALITY RATE WAS 55 OUT OF EVERY 1,000 MEN – MORE THAN FIVE TIMES THE RATE OF A CREW SERVING IN HEALTHIER CLIMATES CLOSER TO HOME”