Jamestown
Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2020 1:15 am
Bob wrote:Sat Aug 15, 2015 12:24 pm It would be fun to do a daily blog riffing on the background of interesting items found in the logs while transcribing. There are certainly enough of them, all I need is the extra two (or three or twenty) hours a day for rummaging around the Internet...
Bob wrote:Sat Aug 15, 2015 10:11 pm USS Jamestown
August 3, 1849
Adriatic Sea, southeast of Brindisi
Commences A brig on the lee Bow. [fresh breezes from the Nd. + Ed., course S by E]
From 4 to 8 AM. The Brig that was to leeward, crossed our bows, and hoisted a British Ensign and pendant, Got the two Bow Guns aft to the Mainmast. Trying our sailing with the Brig, (HBM Brig Racer) at 8 dropped the Brig
http://oldweather.s3.amazonaws.com/ow3/ ... _188_0.jpg
There isn't much information that turns up on the Brig 'Racer', but she was apparently for a time engaged intercepting slave ships, and once carried a delegation from the British Consulate in Tampico, led by the Vice Consul Jos. T. Crawford, to the Republic of Texas in March of 1837 (a year after the Battle of the Alamo) to report on conditions there.
Crawford's letters to his government are a detailed (and somewhat opinionated) description of the countryside, the government, the people and their then recent history of events with Mexico. He seemed satisfied that the Republic of Texas was there to stay: "[...] I may be warranted in concluding that Texas has conquered or will ultimately conquer her Independence of Mexico." In deference to their relations with Mexico, the United Kingdom never officially recognized the Republic of Texas, which became a US state in 1845.
There are records of two slave ship interceptions, a Portuguese ship, 'Bom Destino', and an American vessel, the brig 'Sooy'. The Sooy was chased into a reef near Bahia in September, 1841, and taken into Rio as a prize. The Bom Destino, intercepted in September, 1844, wasn't actually found with slaves on board, but had "suspicious alterations in the deck, and other evidences of having very recently had a cargo of slaves on board." The documents in the link include a pretty graphic description of what the 'evidences' were (First Enclosure No. 141).
The mention of moving the bow guns amidships is an interesting detail. I believe this would have been a means to bring the bow up in the water a bit for trying to gain a bit of extra speed.
Crawford Letters:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/30243039?se ... b_contents
Brig Sooy Listing:
https://books.google.com/books?id=WXg6A ... er&f=false
Dom Destino Seizure Proceedings Documents:
https://books.google.com/books?id=JZItA ... er&f=false