Tarleton (1780 ship)

History
France
Builder: France
Launched: 1778
Captured: 1778[1]
United Kingdom
Name: Tarleton
Owner: Tarleton & Backhouse, Liverpool
Acquired: 1779 by purchase of a prize
Fate: Wrecked 28 November 1788
General characteristics [1]
Tons burthen: 342,[1] or 352 68⁄94,[2] or 400[3] (bm)
Length: 97 ft 3 in (29.6 m),
Beam: 28 ft 6 in (8.7 m) (above wales); 29 ft 0 in (8.8 m) (below wales)[2]
Depth of hold: 5 ft 7 in (1.7 m)
Sail plan: Brigantine, later Full-rigged ship
Armament: 18 × 6-pounder guns
Notes: Two decks and three masts

Tarleton was built in France under another name in 1778 (or simply captured then). The partnership of the Tarletons and Backhouse purchased her in 1779. She first traded between Liverpool and Jamaica, and then became a slaver. She was lost in November 1788.

Merchantman

The High Court of Admiralty condemned her on 4 November 1778 and she was made free on 5 February 1779 at Liverpool.[1]

She underwent a good repair in 1780. She then sailed and between Liverpool and Jamaica.[3]

She underwent a good repair again in 1782.

After Parliament passed the Registry Act (1786), the Tarletons and Backhouse twice registered her at Liverpool: on 13 November 1786 (Liverpool; №154/86), and then on 16 October 1788 (Liverpool; №79/88).

Slave trading voyages

Between 1785 and 1788 by one set of records she made four voyages as a slaver.[4]

Other reports add to this, though sometimes there are inconsistencies in the details both within a source and between sources.

Captain Fairweather was an experience captain of slave ships. He had made his first voyage to Calabar in 1755, probably as an apprentice on Dalrymple while still a teenager. His first command had been in 1768.[6]

Tarleton left Liverpool on 23 June 1785 and arrived at Calabar on 14 August.[7] She stayed there 180 days.[8] She arrived at Dominica on 9 May 1786 with 360 slaves, and Liverpool on 3 September with 57 puncheons and one butt of palm oil, 50 barrels of pepper, 105 ivory tusks, eight tons of redwood, and cargo from the West Indies.[9])

She left Liverpool on 26 August 1786 and left Calabar after 281 days.[8] (However, the same source states that Tarleton and Fairweather left Liverpool on 25 December 1786,[10] which is more ccnsistent with having arrived in Liverpool in September.)

While Fairweather Tarleton were at Calabar, Banastre, another vessel under the ownership of the Tarleton-Backhouse partnership, arrived there. Fairweather sent Banastre, Thomas Smith, master, to the coast of Cameroon. When she arrived there some natives in a canoe approached to trade with her, but were warned off by a shot from another slave vessel, Othello,[Note 1] that killed one of the natives. Captain James McGauley, of Othello, had ordered the shot fired because the natives on that coast owed him a debt and he had declared that he would permit no trade until they had paid him. In 1793 the case of Tarleton and others vs. McGauley came to trial with the plaintiffs suing McGauley for loss of trade.[Note 2] The court found for the plaintiffs, establishing that it is a tort "to cause damage to a person by maliciously using any unlawful means, (e.g. fraud, or threats of assault), to induce anyone to abstain from entering into a contract with him."[12]

Fairweather and Tarleton arrived at Dominica on 19 February 1788. She was carrying 308 slaves, 45 ivory tusks, 94 puncheons, 8 butts, and 15 tierces of palm oil, 50 tons of redwood, and 60 barrels of Guinea pepper. She had started with 371 slaves, and another three to five slaves died after arrival. She returned to Liverpool on 24 June with 80 tons of redwood and cargo from the West Indies.[13]

A listing of cargoes taken up at Old Calabar between 1785 and 1788 states records that on one voyage Tarleton loaded 440 slaves, an estimated 1,512 lbs of ivory,[Note 3] 4,915 gals of palm oil, 9,800 lbs of pepper, and 17,920 lbs of redwood. On a second voyage she loaded 377 slaves, an estimated 648 lbs. of ivory, 9,600 gallons of palm oil, 11,760 lbs. of pepper, and 112,000 lbs of redwood.[14][Note 4]

Loss

Tarleton, Christian, master, foundered on 28 November 1788 off St David's Head on her way from Liverpool to Africa. Her crew was saved.[15] The Liverpool Registry records her as having been lost off the coast of Wales, and gives a date of 26 May 1789,[2] but this date may represent a declaration rather than the date of the actual loss.

Notes, citations and references

Notes

  1. ↑ Othello was a ship of 122 tons (bm), launched at Liverpool in 1786.[11]
  2. ↑ In the description of the case, Banastre is rendered as Banister.[12]
  3. ↑ The records specify "elephants' teeth", which the authors of the book converted at 14.4lbs/"tooth".[14]
  4. ↑ These appear to refer to the two voyages to Dominica above. If so, and taking the extreme range for slaves embarked and disembarked, this would equal an 18% mortality rate among the slaves on the first voyage, and 20% on the second.

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 Craig & Jarvis (1967), p.43.
  2. 1 2 3 Craig & Jarvis (1967), pp.136-7.
  3. 1 2 Lloyd's Register (1781), Seq. №T6.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Thomas Cozens: Liverpool Slave Ship Voyages Database
  5. ↑ Lloyd's Register (1787), Seq. №7.
  6. ↑ Richardson et al. (2007), p.84.
  7. ↑ Behrendt et al., (2010), Chap. 5, fn. 7.
  8. 1 2 Behrendt et al., (2010), p.71.
  9. ↑ Behrendt et al., (2010), p.177, fn.157.
  10. ↑ Behrendt et al., (2010), p.198, fn.208.
  11. ↑ Craig and Jarvis (1967), p.44.
  12. 1 2 Kenny (1908), pp.524-6.
  13. ↑ Behrendt et al., (2010), p.216, fn.259.
  14. 1 2 Behrendt et al., (2010), Table 3.4, p.98.
  15. ↑ Lloyd's List №1788.

References

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