Hannibal (slave ship)

rdf:langString Hannibal (slave ship)

rdf:langString The Hannibal was a slave ship, (or Guineaman) hired by the Royal African Company of London. The ship participated in two slave trading voyages, in the Triangular trade. The wooden sailing ship was 450 tons and mounted with thirty-six guns. The ship is most remembered for her disastrous voyage of 1693–95. Captain Thomas Phillips commanded the Hannibal. He was a Welsh sea captain from Brecon, Wales who was employed by the Sir Jeffrey Jeffreys, and others. who owned the Hannibal and were governors and Assistants in the Royal African Company. At the age of 28–29 Phillips had commissioned his first slave-trading command. He was directly responsible for the tragic deaths of 328 (47 percent) of the 700 enslaved African women, men and children on board, along with 36 of his crew of 70. A very large number of people died in the cruellest of ways. Seven hundred enslaved Africans were forced into her hold to sail to the slave-market in Barbados. Many slavers rigged shelves in the middle called a "slave deck" so that individuals could not even sit upright during the most of the voyage. Letters survive of Phillips writing on 8 September 1693, requesting that ‘the mast-makers of Deptford and Woolwich’ to be ordered to work faster in fitting new platforms and that the blacksmiths to have the same orders for ironwork. The owners of the ship, of which Phillips has a share) were paid £10.50 for every slave they brought to Barbados alive. As a result, the slaves were fed regularly twice a day consisting mainly of corn, beans and pepper which was believed to prevent the white flux. Phillips wrote that he purchased 1,000s of oranges and other fruits on the island of Sao Tome and Principe (St Thomas) for the slaves. The captives received a litre of water per day, and were forced to exercise up on deck for an hour every evening to keep them fit. Despite these efforts, 47 percent of the slaves died from Dysentery, Smallpox, physical injuries, starvation, dehydration and suicide on the Hannibal's voyage of 1693–1695.