History
Great Britain
NameOcean
Launched1790, Plymouth[1]
Captured1797
FateRecaptured 1798
General characteristics
Tons burthen41[1] (bm)
Sail planSloop

Ocean was a sloop launched in 1790 at Plymouth. Circa 1792 the Sierra Leone Company purchased her and sailed her in support of their colony. In 1793 the Company sent her on a voyage along the coast to trade for African commodities that she brought back to Freetown for re-export. The Company judged the experiment a success and the next year it sent several more vessels to do the same. The French captured Ocean in August 1796 and the Royal Navy recaptured her in January 1798. Her subsequent fate is obscure.

Career

Ocean first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in 1791.[1]

Year Master Owner Trade Source
1791 F.Garvey Captain & Co. Dublin–Waterford LR
1792 F.Garvey
Abraham Low		 Captain & Co.
Sierra Leone Company		 Lisbon–Plymouth
Cork–Africa		 LR

In October 1793, the company sent Ocean to cruise from Bissau to Cape Mesurado. Her mission was to visit the forts on the way to purchase African commodities and bring them back to Freetown. There the company would warehouse them until it could export them on vessels visiting Freetown.[2]

The trial apparently was a success. In April 1794 the company expanded the program.[2]

  • Domingo sailed to the River Gabon to acquire wax, ivory, and redwood[2]
  • Thornton sailed to the Gold Coast to trade in gold and ivory[2]
  • James and William carried rum and rice to the Gold Coast[2]
  • Amy sailed to São Tomé to gather "useful plants and seeds"[2]
  • Duke of Clarence was stationed at Rio Pongas as a factory[2]
  • The company also employed a small vessel as a packet to ferry goods and mail back to Freetown[2]
Year Master Owner Trade Source
1795 A. Lock Sierra Leone Company London–Africa LR
1796 S.Rowe Sierra Leone Company London–Sierra Leone LR

In August 1796, the French privateers Africane and Carmagnole captured Ocean, Macaulay, master, off the coast of Africa.[lower-alpha 1] The report stated that they had also captured Speedwell, Payne, master, Manchester, Kendall, master, and Atlantic, Rae, master.[5][lower-alpha 2]

Macaulay was the brother of the governor of the Sierra Leone settlement, Zachary Macaulay. The news of the capture of the vessels, including Ocean, reached the governor at Freetown on 3 September.[6] A few days later Macaulay's brother arrived at Freetown, together with the letters he had been carrying when taken, and a letter from the captain of Africain.[7] An American trader in enslaved people named McLeod, purchased Ocean at Gorée.[8]

In late 1797 or early 1798 HMS Daedalus and HMS Hornet captured six French vessels off Gorée:[9] Two of these were

  • Ship Quaker, which was trading on the coast and had a cargo of merchandise and 337 captives.
  • Sloop Ocean, which had belonged to the Sierra Leone Company. She was carrying cloth, iron, beads, and ten captives.[lower-alpha 3]

Daedalus and Hornet, were working with the letter of marque slave ships Ellis and St Anne to find and defeat "Renaud's Squadron". They shared by agreement in the proceeds of the recapture of Quaker (December 1797) and Ocean (January 1798).[10][11]

The disposition of Ocean after her recapture is obscure. Ocean was no longer listed in Lloyd's Register in 1798.

Notes

  1. ↑ As of January 2023 it is not clear which vessels Aricane/Africaine and Carmagnole were. The most complete source on French privateers has no suitable candidates.[3] One source reports that a French privateer named Carmagnole brought prizes captured from the British and the Spanish into Charleston between late 1794 and February 1796. Carmagnole disappeared from the Charleston records and was believed to have become one of Victor Hugues' privateers at Guadeloupe. She was described as a schooner of eight guns.[4]
  2. ↑ Manchester and Speedwell were slave ships on their way to acquire enslaved people for the triangular trade. Atlantic and Ocean were not.
  3. ↑ It was common for vessels to shuttle slaves between ports to get a better price for the trans-Atlantic trade.

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 LR (1791), Seq.no.O61.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Scanlan (2017), p. 42.
  3. ↑ Demerliac (1999).
  4. ↑ Jackson (1969), pp. 84, & 104–105.
  5. ↑ "The Marine List". Lloyd's List. No. 2887. 6 January 1798.
  6. ↑ Macaulay (1900), pp. 150–151.
  7. ↑ Macaulay (1900), p. 152.
  8. ↑ Macaulay (1900), pp. 174–175.
  9. ↑ "No. 14096". The London Gazette. 6 March 1798. p. 205.
  10. ↑ "No. 15138". The London Gazette. 25 May 1799. p. 509.
  11. ↑ "No. 15510". The London Gazette. 28 August 1802. p. 922.

References

  • Demerliac, Alain (1999). La Marine de la Révolution: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1792 à 1799 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 9782906381247. OCLC 492783890.
  • Jackson, Melvin H. (1969). Privateers in Charleston 1794–1796: An account of a French palatinate in South Carolina. SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY NUMBER 1. United States Government Printing Office.
  • Macaulay, Zachary (1900). Knutsford, Margaret Jean Trevelyan (ed.). Life and Letters of Zachary Macaulay. Edward Arnold.
  • Scanlan, Padraic X. (2017). Freedom's Debtors: British Antislavery in Sierra Leone in the Age of Revolution. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300217445.
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