Luke Collingwood

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Captain Luke Collingwood (died 1781) was captain of the slave ship the Zong. He was a doctor aboard his previous slave ship and not experienced enough to captain one. He is famous for the voyage of the Zong during which, on November 29, 1781, he decided to throw ill slaves overboard. The owner attempted to file an insurance claim against lost cargo, eventually leading to the re-examination of policies towards slavery in Britain, which ultimately led to abolition of slavery by 1815.