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Wreck of a Slave Ship (1762) · Short Nonfiction Collection

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  Rakoffas Slave Shape by anonymous. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
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  are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  LibriVox to talk rakoffas Slave Ship. The following extract of a letter from Philadelphia,
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  dated November eleventh, seventeen sixty two, gives an account of the melancholy
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  disaster that befel the Phoenix. Captain mccashire in latitude thirty seven degrees north and
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  longitude seventy two degrees west from London, bound to Potomac in Maryland, from
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  the coast of Africa, with three hundred and thirty two slaves on board.
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  On Wednesday, the twentieth of October seventeen sixty two, at six o'clock in
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  the evening, came on a most violent gale of wind a south with thunder
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  and lightning, the sea running very high. When the ship sprung the league
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  and we were obliged to lie to under bare poles. The water gained on
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  us, with both pumps constantly working. Ten p m endeavored to put the
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  ship before the wind to morrow purpose at twelve the sun ballast having choked out
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  pumps, and there being seven feet water in the hold, all the gusts
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  flowed, and the ballast shifted to leeward, cut away the rigging of the
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  man and his mass, both of which went instantly rose by the deck,
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  and immediately after the foremast was carried away about twenty feet above. Who have
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  overboard all our guns, upon which the ship righted a little. We were
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  then under a necessity of letting all our slaves out of irons to assist in
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  pumping and baling. Thursday morning, being moderate, having gained about three feet
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  on the ship, we found every cask in the hold stove to pieces,
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  so that we only saved a barrel of flour, ten pounds of bread,
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  twenty five gallows of wine, beer, and shrub, and twenty five gallons
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  of spirits. The seamen and slaves were employed all this day in pumping and
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  bathing. The pumps were frequently choked and brought up great quantities of sand.
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  We were obliged to hoist one of the pumps up and put it down the
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  quartered eck hatway. A ship this day bore down upon us, and though
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  very near, and we making every signal of distress, she would not speak
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  to us. On Friday, the man slaves, being very sullen and unruelly,
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  having had no sustenance of any kind for forty eight hours except a dump,
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  we put one half of the strongest of them in irons. On Saturday
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  and Sunday, all hands night and day could scarce keep the ship clear and
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  were constantly under arms. On Monday morning, many of the slaves had got
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  out of irons and were attempting to break up the gratings, and the semen,
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  not daring to go down in the hold to clear the pumps, we
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  were obliged, for the preservation of our own lives, to kill fifty of
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  the ringleaders and stoudest of them. It is impossible to describe the misery the
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  poor slaves underwent, having had no fresh water for five days. Their dismal
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  cries and shrieks and most frightful looks added a great deal to our misfortunes.
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  Four of them were found dead, and one drowned herself in the hold.
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  This evening, the water gained on us, and three semen dropped down with
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  fatigue and thirst which could not be quenched, though wine, rum and shrump
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  were given them alternately. On Thursday morning, the ship had gained during the
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  night above a food of water, and the seamen quite worn out, and
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  many of them in despair. About ten in the forenoon we saw us Aye.
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  About two she discovered us and bore down a five spoke to us,
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  being the King George of London Berry James McKay master. He immediately promised to
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  take us on board, and hoisted out his yawl, then blowing very fresh
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  the gale increasingly prevented him from saving anything but the white people's wives, not
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  even any of our clothes or one slave, the boat being scarcely able to
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  live in the sea. The last trip she made, Captain mackay and some
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  gentlemen passengers he had on board treated us with kindness and humanity. End of
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  the Wreck of a Slave Ship read by cloud Acute