History
Great Britain
NameSwan
Launched1800
FateWrecked 10 May 1806
General characteristics
Tons burthen117,[1] or 135[2] (bm)
Armament
  • 1800:2 × 4-pounder guns
  • 1801:10 × 6-pounder + 2 × 4-pounder guns

Swan was launched at Greenock, Scotland, in 1800. She traded widely until in 1805 she became a slave ship in the triangular trade of enslaved people. She was lost in 1806 while delivering captives.

Career

Swan appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in 1800 with Hattrick, master, Ritchie, owner, and trade Greenock–Jamaica, changing to Greenock–Newfoundland.[1]

Swan's first owner was Walter Ritchie & Sons. At the beginning of the 19th century, Walter Ritchie & Sons was one of the best known Greenock firms of shipowners. In 1808 Walter Ritchie moved to London to manage his London business. His sons then took charge of eleven ships, "by far the finest mercantile fleet...in Great Britain belonging to one firm."[3][4]

Year Master Owner Trade Source & notes
1802 J. Fraser Hamilton & Co. Greenock–Trinidad Register of Shipping
1804 J. Fraser
J. Bryant		 Hamilton & Co.
McKenzie & Co.		 Greenock–Grenada
London–Seville		 LR
1805 J.Bryant
D.Smith		 M'Kenzie London–Seville
London–Africa		 LR; damages repaired and good repair 1805
1806 D. Smith A. Shaw London–Africa LR; almost rebuilt 1803; damages repaired and good repair 1805

Voyage transporting enslaved people: Captain D. Smith sailed from England on 1 November 1805.[2] Swan acquired captives in the region and then on 3 March 1806, sailed for Charleston. South Carolina, in the United States. She was wrecked near Charleston on 10 May 1806 without loss of life.[5] Reportedly, she landed 194 captives.[2] The entry for her in the Register of Shipping for 1806 has the annotation "LOST" by her name.[6]

In December 1803, the South Carolina General Assembly had voted to reopen the African slave trade. Concern with the spread of yellow fever had caused the Assembly to suspend the slave trade. The Medical Society of South Carolina relaxed quarantine measures, prioritizing reopening the slave trade over public health.[7] The Medical Society argued that the fever was not imported (correct), and not contagious. Later it was discovered that the disease was not directly contagious, but was mosquito-borne, and so indirectly contagious, and that quarantine would help reduce the spread.

In 1806, 33 British ships were lost in the triangular trade. Eight were lost on the Middle Passage, sailing from Africa to the West Indies of the United States.[8] Although Swan was lost to the perils of the sea, during the period 1793 to 1807, war, rather than maritime hazards or resistance by the captives, was the greatest cause of vessel losses among British slave vessels.[9]

Citations

  1. 1 2 Lloyd;s Register (1800), Seq.№S491.
  2. 1 2 3 Trans Atlantic Slave Trade database – Voyages: Swan.
  3. ↑ Smith (1921), p. 203.
  4. ↑ Blake (1937), pp. 34–36.
  5. ↑ Lloyd's List №4064.
  6. ↑ Register of Shipping (1806), Seq.№S839.
  7. ↑ Smith (2013), p. 1.
  8. ↑ Inikori (1996), p. 62.
  9. ↑ Inikori (1996), p. 58.

References

  • Blake, George (1937). Down to the sea: the romance of the Clyde, its ships and shipbuilders. Collins.
  • Inikori, Joseph (1996). "Measuring the unmeasured hazards of the Atlantic slave trade: Documents relating to the British trade". Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer. 83 (312): 53–92.
  • Smith, Benjamin Allen (2013). Impatient and pestilent: epidemic disease and the reopening of the slave trade in early republic South Carolina (MA). Univ. of Georgia.
  • Smith, Robert Murray (1921). The History of Greenock. Orr, Pollock.
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