HMS Namur
In 1806 Stanfield become a sailor and joined a
South Shields collier. In 1808 he was
press ganged into the Royal Navy, serving on HMS Namur a guardship at
Sheerness. In 1814 he was discharged on grounds of ill health.
Monday 27 August 2012
Observations on a Guinea voyage
In this excerpt from Observations
on a Guinea voyage. In a series of letters addressed to the Rev. Thomas
Clarkson (1788), published in London by the Society for Effecting the Abolition
of the Slave Trade, the former slave-ship sailor James Field Stanfield
graphically describes his own disease-ridden ship as it sails on the Middle
Passage. Stanfield references Alexander Falconbridge, who worked as a surgeon
on several slave voyages before joining Clarkson's anti-slavery society. Some
spelling has been modernized.
Letter the Third; an excerpt from Observations on a Guinea voyage. In a series of letters addressed to the Rev. Thomas Clarkson by James Field Stanfield (1788)
Letter the Third – page 10 to 16 & Letter the Fifth - page 23 to 30
Page 10
Till the vessel gets clear of the
channel—till there is no probability that contrary winds or inclemency of
weather will drive her back into an English port, the usage of seamen is
moderate, and their allowance of provisions sufficient: in short, the conduct
of the Captain and officers appears like that which is the continual practice
in every other employ. But as soon as they are fairly out at sea, and there is
no moral possibility of desertion, or application for justice, then the scene
is shifted. Their ratio of provisions is shortened to the very verge of famine;
their allowance of water lessened to the extreme of existence; nothing but
incessant labour, a burning climate, unremitting cruelty, and every species of
oppression is before them.
Page 11
This is no exaggerated language,
nor is it the picture but of one particular case: every one I have ever spoken
with, that was qualified to answer on the subject (and there should be little
account made of any other) has declared that the usage was alike, with but a
few exceptions. What I saw and felt myself, I have a right to declare; and I
think it may be assumed as the average medium of the general conduct of the
African employ; for I have heard of very many instances of greater cruelty and
destruction; and a few, where the usage has been better.
We were fortunate in a leaky
vessel, and bad weather: the apprehension that we should be obliged to bear
away for Lisbon kept back our misery for awhile. Flogging did not commence with
us till about the latitude 28˚. It was talked of long before, but was withheld
by the above-mentioned consideration. It no sooner made its appearance, but it
spread like a contagion. Wantonness, misconception, and ignorance, inflicted it
without an appearance of remorse, and without fear of being answerable for the
abuse of authority. This barbarous charge to the officers I myself heard given.
"You are now in a Guinea ship—no seaman, though you speak harshly, must
dare to give you a saucy answer—that is out of the question; but
Page 12
if they LOOK to displease you,
knock them down."
The cruel direction was soon put
in practice by one of the mates on the cooper, a most harmless, hard-working,
worthy creature. The mate knocked him down for some light answer he gave him,
for the poor fellow had an innocent aim at being humorous. On his making his
way to appeal to the Captain, he was knocked down again: crawling on the deck,
his face covered with blood, he still persisted to make his way to the cabin,
but was struck to the deck a third and a fourth time, when some of the sailors
rushed between, and hurried him away.
Scarce an hour passed in any day
without flogging; sometimes three were tied up together. The slightest
imputation of error brought on the bitter punishment; and sometimes the
smarting application of pickle was superadded.
I do not know exactly remember the
allowance of bread: at first I know it was five pounds per week, served out
every Sunday (the only circumstance that distinguished the Sabbath through the
whole voyage) but it was soon lessened. This I very well remember, that many of
the people had their whole week's proportion eaten up by Tuesday morning: and
the daily weight of beef was so small, that
Page 13
though there was not water to allay the thirst it occasioned, we
never dared to steep it for fear of wasting the quantity.
During the first part of the
passage, our allowance of water was three pints per day: for the last month it
was reduced to one quart, wine measure. A quart of water in the torrid zone! In
the calms, which are prevalent in this latitude, we were in the boat, towing,
from morning till night: happy used I to think myself, though almost fainting
with fatigue, if a little sweat dropped from my forehead, that I might catch it
in my mouth to moisten my parched tongue. The licking the dew off the hencoops,
in a morning, had been long a delicious secret; but my monopoly was at last
found out, and my little refreshment laid open to numbers. Many of the men
could not refrain, but in a kind of temporary distraction, drank up their whole
allowance the moment they received it; and remained for the next four and
twenty hours in a state of raging thirst not to be described. The doctor
declared that this want of water, in such a climate, and living intirely on salt
provisions, must lead to the most fatal consequences.
During this scarcity with the men,
the captain, besides plenty of beer and wine, had a large teakettle full of
water every morning, and another
Page 14
every evening, added to his
allowance. I know there was no want in the cabin, for the third mate, who was
my friend, frequently gave me a little out of his portion.
This scarcity of water is a common
case: it is owing to the vessel's being stowed so full of goods for the trade,
that room for necessaries is made but a secondary consideration. The occasion
of this conduct appears to me to be principally this. A certain number of
slaves are to be carried to the West-Indies: but before that number can be
landed there, the owners are well aware how many are likely to be marked on the
dead list, for the purchase of which, there must be goods sent out, as well as
the probable number that speculation has fixed to come to market. For this
reason every corner and cranny is crammed with articles of traffic; to this
consideration is bent every exertion of labour and ingenuity; and the healths
and lives of the seamen, as of no value, have but little weight in the
estimation.
Besides the inexpressible misery
of wanting water in such a climate, there is another very material hardship
attending this avaricious accumulation of cargo. The vessel is so crowded with
goods, that the sailors have no room to sling their hammocks and bedding.
Before they leave the cold latitudes
Page 15
they lie up and down, on chests
and cables, but when they come nearer the influence of the potent sun, the
sleep upon dock, exposed to all the malignity of the heavy and unwholesome
dews.
The advocates for the Slave-Trade
endeavour to advance, that the mortality of the seamen is chiefly to be
attributed to the nature of the climate—but this assertion, without proof, is
founded neither in veracity nor experience. The climate comes in for its share
in heightening the horrid scene, but it is the previously wretched situation of
the poor victims that gives it that effect. I heard our doctor, an able
intelligent man, declare, that if the trade, with the same concomitant
circumstances, was carried on at the Canary Islands, the same mortality would
be the consequence. And I am fully convinced, that if a commerce was carried on
to the coast of Africa of any other kind than that of slaving, and the captains
treated their people with as much humanity as they are treated in other
employs, not one of the causes of the great mortality, I have been witness to,
could exist.
Among the many causes of
destruction, which originate from the trade, and not from the climate, the
bulk-heads between the decks, excluding a salutary circulation of air, have
been insisted upon as producing their effects. But there is another,
Page 16
which has not claimed such notice,
and which yet is a terrible assistant to African mortality. This is the
fabricating of an house over the vessel for the security of slaves, while on
the coast.
This enclosure helps the
stagnation of air, and is, in that point of view, dreadful: but it is more
fatal in the act of its preparation. I know nothing more destructive than the
business of cutting wood and bamboe, for the purpose of erecting and thatching
this structure. The process is generally by the river-side. The faces and
bodies of the poor seamen are exposed to the fervour of a burning sun, for a
covering would be insupportable. They are immersed up to the waist in mud and
slime; pestered by snakes, worms, and venomous reptiles; tormented by
muskitoes, and a thousand assailing insects; their feet slip from under them at
every stroke, and their relentless officers do not allow a moment's
intermission from the painful task. This employment, the cruelty of the
officers, and the inconceivably shocking talk of scraping the contagious blood
and filth, at every opportunity, from the places where the slaves lie, are, in
my opinion, the three greatest (though by no means the sole) causes of the
destruction of seamen, which this country experiences by the prosecution of the
trade in slaves.
<>
Letter the Fifth; an excerpt from Observations on a Guinea voyage. In a series of letters addressed to the Rev. Thomas Clarkson by James Field Stanfield (1788)
Letter the Fifth
Page 23
It is unaccountable, but it is
certainly true, that the moment a Guinea captain comes in sight of this shore,
the Demon cruelty seems to fix his residence within him. Soon after we arrived,
there came on board us a master of a vessel, who was commissioned joint factor
with our captain. All that I could conceive of barbarity fell short of the
stories I heard of this man. His whole delight was in giving pain.
While our captain was placing
buoys and other directions on the dangerous bar of the river, for the purpose
of crossing it, he used to order the men to be flogged without an imputation of
the smallest crime. The steward, for serving out some red wine to a sick man,
by the doctor's direction, was flogged in such a manner, as not to be able to
let his shirt touch his mangled back; and after his punishment, making an
attempt to explain the matter, he was ordered to the shrowds again, and the
same number of lashes was repeated.
It was his common practice to call
his cabin-boy to him, and without any, the smallest provocation, to tear his
face, ears, and neck, in the most brutal manner. I have seen him thrust his
fingers into
Page 24
his mouth, and force them against
the inside of his cheek till the wound appeared on the outside of the same. He
had pulled his ears so much, that they became of a monstrous size. The hind
part of them was torn from the head. They had a continual soreness and running,
and were not well near a twelvemonth after his infernal tormentor's death, when
he deserted from us in the West Indies. I heard many and uncommon stories of
the barbarity of this monster to his own crew, but had an opportunity to see
but little of him, for he lived but eleven days after he came on board us; he
killed himself with our wine and beer; of which he had not tasted any for a
long time before our arrival there.
At the commencement of our trade,
I went up to the factory, where I continued about eight months. In the course
of this time most of the crew fell the sacrifices of this horrid traffick, and
its inseparable cruelties. One evening only was I on board during this period:
but this was sufficient to give me a strong idea of the misery I had so happily
escaped. The vessel, as Mr. Falconbridge aptly and emphatically observes, was
like a slaughter-house. Blood, filth, misery, and disease. The chief mate lay
dying, calling out for that comfort and assistance had had so often denied to
others. He was glad to lay hold of me to bring him a little re-
Page 25
freshment—no one else to take the
smallest notice of his cries. The doctor was in the same condition, and making
the same complaint. The second mate was lying on his back on the
medicine-chest; his head hanging down over one end of it, his hair sweeping the
deck, and clotted with the filth that was collected there; and in this
unnoticed situation he died soon after I came on board.
On the poop the appearance was
still more shocking—the remainder of the ship's crew stretched in the last
stage of their sickness, without comfort, without refreshment, without
attendance. There they lay, straining their weak voices with the most
lamentable cries for a little water, and not a soul to afford them the smallest
relief. And while all this horror and disease were preying on the lives of the
poor seamen, the business of purchasing, messing the slaves, and every
circumstance relative to the trade, was transacting with as little
interruption, and as much unconcern, as if no such people had ever been on
board. I passed a night of misery with them, and got up the river with the
morning's boat—another night might have sealed me among the number of the
devoted crew.
To provide against this mortality,
and to convey the purchase to the West Indies, (which makes the answer to the
second query of my fourth letter) a
Page 26
fine large ship, and a fresh crew,
were sent out to us. The new captain, and a few to make trade, (as I remarked
before) were left behind in the factory. About five of the old crew, all that
were now left, and in the last stage of illness, were brought off with us. In
this fresh ship, and with his fresh crew we left the coast, and entered on what
is called the Middle Passage.
This horrid portion of the voyage
was but one continued scene of barbarity, unremitting labour, mortality, and
disease. Flogging, as in the outward passage, was a principal amusement in
this.
The captain was so feeble that he
could not move, but was obliged to be carried up and down: yet his illness, so
far from abating his tyranny, seemed rather to increase it. When in this
situation, he has often asked the persons who carried him, whether they could
judge of the torment he was in; and being answered, No—he has laid hold of
their faces, and darting his nails into their cheeks with all his strength, on
the person's crying out with the pain, he would then add, with the malignity of
a demon, "There,—that is to give you a taste of what I feel." He had
always a parcel of trade knives within his reach, which he would also dart at
them with ferocity on the most trifling occasions.
Page 27
The bed of this wretch, which he
kept for weeks together, was in one corner of the cabin, and raised to a good
height from the deck. To the posts of this bed he would order those to be tied
that were to be flogged, so that their faces almost met his, and there he lay,
enjoying their agonizing screams, while their flesh was lacerated without
mercy: this was a frequent and a favourite mode of punishment.
The chief mate whom we brought off
the coast, died soon; the second mate soon after: their united duties devolved
on me. While the latter was in his illness, he got up one night, made a noise,
tumbled some things about the half-deck, untied a hammock, and played some
other delirious but innocent tricks. The captain, being a little recovered at
that time, came out, and knocked him down. I do not at this time remember the
weapon, but know his head was sadly cut, and bleeding—in short, he was beat in
a most dreadful manner; and, before the morning, he was dead. This man had not
been many weeks on the coast, and left it in remarkably good health.
The cook, one day, burned some
meat in the roasting: he was called to the cabin on that account, and beaten
most violently with the spit. He begged and cried for mercy, but without
effect, until the strength of his persecutor was exhausted.
Page 28
He crawled some where—but never
did duty afterwards. He died in a day or two!
The poor creatures, as our numbers
were thinned, were obliged to work when on the very verge of death. The
certainty, that they could not live a day longer, did not procure them a grain
of mercy. The boatswain, who had left the coast, a healthy, hearty man, had
been seized with the flux: he was in the last stage of it, but no remission
from work was allowed him. He grew at last so bad, that the mucus, blood, and
whole strings of his intestines came from him without intermission. Yet, even
in this situation—when he could not stand—he was forced to the wheel, to steer
a large vessel; an arduous duty, that in all likelihood would have required two
men, had we had people enough for the purpose. He was placed upon one of the
messtubs, as not being able to stand, and that he might not dirty the deck. He
remained at this painful duty as long as he could move his hands—he died on the
same night! The body was, as usual, thrown overboard, without any covering but
the shirt. It grew calm in the night, and continued to be so for a good part of
the next day—in the morning his corps was discovered floating alongside, and
kept close to us for some hours—it was a horrid spectacle, and seemed to give
us an idea of
Page 29
the body of a victim, calling out
to heaven for vengeance on our barbarity!
As the crew fell off, an
accumulated weight of labour pressed upon the few survivors—and, towards the
end of the middle passage, all idea of keeping the slaves in chains was given
up; for there was not strength enough left among all the white men, to pull a
single rope with effect. The slaves (at least a great number of them) were
therefore freed from their irons, and they pulled and hawled as they were
directed by the inefficient sailors. We were fortunate in having favourable
weather: a smart gale of wind, such as with an able crew would not have created
us more trouble than reefing our sails a little, must have inevitable sent us
to destruction, and added us to a numerous list of people, that have perished
in the same circumstances; but which list has been kept from the publick eye by
the most studied circumspection.
In this state of weakness, it may
be readily supposed, that but little attention can be paid to those, whose
approach to the last stage of their misery renders them helpless, and in want
of aid: I remember that a man, who was ill, had one night crawled out of his
hammock: he was so weak that he could not get back, but laid himself down on
the gratings. There was no person to assist him—
Page 30
In the morning, when I came upon
the main deck—(I shudder at the bare recollection) he was still alive, but
covered with blood—the hogs had picked his toes to the bones, and his body was
otherwise mangled by them in a manner too shocking to relate.
Nailing The Standard
by
Clarkson Stanfield
A painting that is likely to be inspired by Jack Crawford.
Jack Crawford from
Hendon in Sunderland
The Hero of
Camperdown
1797
I have been unable to find the name of the artist of this work:
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