Vigilant (1783 ship)

Vigilant was launched in 1780 at Sunderland as Alfred but in 1783 new owners renamed her. She became a West Indiaman and then a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. As she was gathering slaves on the coast of Africa the slaves on board captured her and ran her aground, a relatively rare instance of a shipboard insurrection, and a successful one at that.

For other ships with the same name, see Vigilant (ship).

History
Great Britain
NameAlfred
Launched1780, Sunderland
RenamedVigilant (1783)
Captured1786
FateLost 1786
General characteristics
Tons burthen280 (bm)

Career

Alfred first appeared in Lloyd's Register (LR) in 1783.

Year Master Owner Trade Source
1783 R.Kellock E.Askell Stockholm–Hull LR

In 1783 new owners renamed Alfred Vigilant.[1]

Year Master Owner Trade Source
1784 Barnwell A.Calvert London–New York LR
1786 J.Duncan A.Calvert London–Barbados LR

Slave voyage and loss: Captain J. Duncan sailed from London on 28 March 1786.[2] In October Lloyd's List reported that the Vigilant was at Assamaboe when the enslaved people on board took her over, killed Duncan and the second mate, and ran her ashore.[3]

The 1787 volume of Lloyd's Register carried the annotation "Lost" under her name.[4]

The revolt is one of 493 that appear in a chronology of slave revolts between 1509 and 1865,[5] but with no additional information. Inikori too listed the revolt on Vigilant, with the same information.[6] He also found that of 186 vessels lost to shipwrecks, slave insurrections and attacks by coastal natives, 79 were lost to insurrection and conflict with coastal Africans.[7] Behrendt, in his study of captains in the British slave trade between 1785 and 1807, focused on captains from Liverpool and Bristol. Duncan, therefore, did not enter the study. Still, Behrendt found that although 214 captains died, amounting to 27% of all captains in the trade, only three, or about 1% of the deaths, were due to slave uprisings.[8] Richardson, in his study of slave revolts, found a relatively high incidence of shipboard slave revolts in Senegambia and Upper Guinea, and a generally lower incidence of revolts on ships in the Gold Coast, Bight of Benin, Bight of Biafra, and West Central Africa.[9] All of this suggests that Vigilant's fate, though not unique, was relatively rare.

Citations
  1. Lloyd's Register (1784), Seq.No.V209.
  2. Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database – Vigilant voyage #83970.
  3. "The Marine List". Lloyd's List. No. 1824. 27 October 1788. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  4. LR (1787), Seq.No.V51.
  5. Taylor (2009), p. 205.
  6. Inikori (1996), p. 71.
  7. Inikori (1996), p. 63.
  8. Behrendt (1990), p. 111.
  9. Richardson (2001), p. 90.

References
  • Behrendt, Stephen D. (1990). "The Captains in the British slave trade from 1785 to 1807" (PDF). Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. 140.
  • 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.
  • Richardson, David (2001). "Shipboard Revolts, African Authority, and the Atlantic Slave Trade". William and Mary Quarterly. 58 (1): 69–92.
  • Taylor, Eric Robert (2009). If We Must Die: Shipboard Insurrections in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. LSU press. ISBN 9780807134429.
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