From: Ingrid Pollard <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: {Disarmed} Re: Recovery of Sunken Slave Ship
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Thursday, 18 June, 2009, 9:18 AM

I've been interesetd to read about the ship and responses.
I was sent an artefact by a friend, (bought from ebay) from a sunken ship
off the UK coast that contained iron that was proported to be used in the
making of iron works for a 'slaver' - the artefact comes with
documentation.
I feels as if 'peoeple' are still making money from historic slavery.

It all reminds me of 'The Slaves of Rapaeree' off our Corninsh coast and
the moving service that commemeerated that site and those who died there.

Ingrid Pollatrd.


\
\On Wed, June 17, 2009 11:40 pm, arthur torrington wrote:
>

>
>
> Ross, I thought of you just before first sending the info via JISCMAIL.
> Our history is an atlantic history, and has to be brought up from the deep
> also. Marine archaeology is crucial to that process, and can only
> improve, yet slow.
>
>
>
> Arthur
>
>
>
> Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:59:34 -00
> From: [log in to unmask]" ymailto="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Recovery of Sunken Slave Ship
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> When I saw this I sort of smirked but looking at the responses I have
> become interested in the fact that you are interested in slave ships. I
> knew Mel Fisher back in the old days and understood his very simple logic
> about making the most out of the treasures of a sunken vessel by creating
> a museum and letting people pay to see the exhibit- real gold and silver
> money and jewels, and crowns, etc. That way he kept the treasure and its
> value only went up if he ever needed to sell any.
>
> When times turned and the treasure hunter was deemed politically
> incorrect, Mel was right at the cutting edge by having a museum for
> preservation of his treasures. Smart.
>
> Today, we have a different slant to what is deemed valuable and in that
> regard we have quite a few wrecks around that carried slaves and are
> being researched as we write and read these lines. We also have a
> particular wreck in the Turks and Caicos Islands that should warrent even
> more interest than re-proving the miseries of the trans-Atlantic passage
> in a slave ship, we have slaves working on the refinement and the
> navigating of a change in maritime history- the Bermuda Sloop.
>
> The only known Bermuda Sloop wreck is sitting off Providenciales Island
> in the Turks and Caicos Islands in no more than 60'-70' of clear water.
> It has been sitting there since the late 18th Century and still awaits
> funding to take it's lines and investigate its craftsmanship.
>
> The thing of interest about the Bermuda system of enslavement is that the
> enslaved mariners were given a portion of the booty or profit, depending
> on what the job was and they were able to purchase homes and raise
> families in Bermuda. The average Bermuda Sloop, and this is the design
> that personified the turning from the square rig to the fore and aft rig,
> another historically valuable point, was about 70-foot on deck and at
> times had a crew of 70. By Bermuda law there could be no more than 5 or 6
> free whites aboard (some whites were enslaved also) with the remainder of
> the crew being Black or Native American enslaved and/or free.
>
> You don't need 70 people to sail a 70-foot vessel but you do need that
> many for privateering/piracy, which with salt trading and wrecking, was a
> principle staple in the initial success of the Bermuda archipelago's
> economy.
>
> Another interesting fact is that the builders of the vessels were for the
> most part the enslaved Blacks, Whites and Indians. The Blacks, being the
> majority of the enslaved, also became the skilled labour force and were
> rented out to places like the Chesapeake to teach shipbuilding. This
> means that much of the refinement of this historic vessel was
> accomplished by enslaved Blacks. So, to see how a Bermuda Sloop was
> actually constructed means we are looking at the level of the skills of
> African Diaspora people and that we can compare what they did in Bermuda
> with what they did in Africa.
>
> The only Bermuda Sloop, which was the fastest and most able vessel of its
> time, sits in the Turks and Caicos Islands waiting to be surveyed. The
> Department of Maritime Archaeology and History at the University of
> Bristol want to do the job but they need funding. If you are seriously
> interested in a positive way inwhich we used slavery back in the day in
> place of how we were just traumatised and are keeping that degrading part
> of our history as the most important lesson for our youth to learn, then
> please write to Dr. Mark Horton at Bristol and figure out a way to
> assist.
>
> The other interesting and valuable maritime vessel venture that might be
> considered rests in the hands of Professor Gene Dinizulu Tinnie over in
> Florida. He is attempting to replicate the slave ship Dos Amigos that was
> captured by the Royal Navy, modified and used as a slave chaser named the
> Fair Rosamond. This vessel has the record for capturing more slave ships
> than any other vessel and her lines have been reproduced and sit at the
> National Maritime Museum. Again, this is the evolution of the Bermuda
> Sloop into the Chesapeake Bay Pilot Schooner, the best sailing vessel for
> over one hundred years. The America was a New York development of this
> design.
>
> Either way there are many positive maritime ventures out there and
> already many slave ships being studied.
>
> H.E. Ross
>
>
> --- On Wed, 17/6/09, Angela Allison <[log in to unmask]" ymailto="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>
>
> From: Angela Allison <[log in to unmask]" ymailto="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Recovery of Sunken Slave Ship
> To: [log in to unmask]" ymailto="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
> Date: Wednesday, 17 June, 2009, 4:41 PM
>
>
>
> not less educated but their knowledge, wisdom and abilities was not
> valued
>
>
> Angela
>
>
> On 14 Jun 2009, at 16:30, arthur torrington wrote:
>
>
>>
>> FYI
>> ------
>>
>>
>>
>> A Maafa Ship: A proposal To recover Sunken pieces of African American
>> History
>>
>>
>> From the rise and fall of the Roman and Greek Empires to the European
>> "Discovery" of the Americas, the story remains the same; for thousands
>> of years man's greed for gold and power has come with a relentless
>> price. The fuel supply of the past was human labor instead of oil. The
>> rich man pillaged in lands faraway, stealing and twisting the lives of
>> the poor and less educated, spilling their blood to build their palaces
>> and facilitate their lifestyles.
>>
>> The price in this case, has been a holocaust of epic proportions. It is
>> the West African Slave trade also known as Maafa.
>>
>> Historically speaking, the construction of great cities, palaces,
>> churches and civilization s meant progress. Railroads, schools,
>> agriculture were all necessary to further the growth of the new world.
>> But for some, progress came with shackles and chains. Ripped away from
>> their families and homeland to work as slaves for the white man; their
>> tragic truths left out of history books and museums; the secrets to
>> these unspeakable times buried with the slave ships that sunk while
>> transporting them . Slave Ships are also know as "slavers." It was
>> slave labor that built early America, yet little evidence of their
>> slave transport from West Africa to the United States has been found
>> leaving a huge gap in African American History … CURRENT OPPORTUNITY –
>> MAAFA -A SUNKEN SLAVE SHIP FOUND OFF THE WEST COAST OF FLORIDA AN
>> AFRICAN AMERICAN TREASURE; priceless keys to the past…
>>
>>
>> A cast iron cannon sits 65 ft below the surface There is currently rich
>> historical evidence pointing to the discovery of a sunken slave ship
>> circa 1820-1840. The ship is approximately 22 miles off the coast of
>> Sarasota, Florida, just outside the legal jurisdiction of the state.
>> The vessel is most likely a British or American "Slaver" that sunk in a
>> hurricane and sits in approximately 65-80 feet of water.
>>
>> The reason we define this vessel as a slave ship is based on the cargo
>> of ivory tusk obviously coming from Africa. Photographs reveal numerous
>> tusks, cannons and artifacts.
>>
>> Although the ship may not be carrying the loot normally required to
>> warrant a search, the ship carries missing historical pieces of the
>> African American Holocaust Experience; priceless keys to the past…
>>
>>
>> A BRIEF HISTORY OF TRADE
>>
>>
>> African and African-American scholars call the slave trade the "
>> Maafa." "Maafa means "holocaust" or "great disaster" in Swahili. The
>> slaves were one element of a three-part economic cycle—the Triangular
>> Trade and its Middle Passage—which ultimately involved four continents,
>> four centuries and millions of people.
>>
>> Triangular trade is a historical term indicating trade between three
>> ports or regions. The trade evolved where a region had an export
>> commodity that was=2 0not required in the region from which its major
>> imports came. Triangular trade thus provided a mechanism for rectifying
>> trade imbalances..
>>
>> The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the Transatlantic slave trade,
>> was the trade of African people supplied to the colonies of the "New
>> World" that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean. It lasted from
>> the 16th century to the 19th century. Most slaves were shipped from
>> West Africa and Central Africa and taken to the New World. European
>> slave traders, captured slaves through raids and kidnapping, but most
>> were obtained through coastal trading with elite Africans and Arabs.
>> Most contemporary historians estimate that between 9.4 and 12 million
>> Africans arrived in the New World, although the number of people taken
>> from their homestead is considerably higher.
>>
>> The most famous triangular trade in human history was the 18th century
>> =0 A trade between West Africa, the West Indies, and Europe
>> (alternatively: West Africa, the West Indies, and northern colonies in
>> British North America).. Of these, the sea lane west from Africa was
>> the notorious Middle Passage; its cargo, abducted or recently purchased
>> African slaves.
>>
>>
>> AMERICAN, BRITISH OR PIRATE?
>>
>>
>> This allows us to assume that the ship sailed from West Africa with a
>> cargo of slaves and African Ivory for trade purposes. Whether the ship
>> originated in the United States bringing sugar, tobacco and cotton to
>> Europe or whether it originated in Europe bringing textiles, rum and
>> manufactured goods to Africa is still yet unknown.
>>
>> England outlawed slavery in 1808 but until the "MaafaD bell is found
>> and the ship and it's remains are brought up, no one knows for sure
>> where the ship originated.
>>
>> Despite the fact that somewhere between 9-12 million slaves were
>> transported by ship across the seas, the evidence and history thus far
>> lies solely with reconstruction of the Henrietta Marie.
>>
>> A SLAVE SHIP RECOVERED – 1972
>>
>>
>> The Henrietta Marie is believed to be the world's largest source of
>> tangible objects from the early years of the slave trade. In 1699, the
>> Henrietta Marie sailed from London to New Calabar, West Africa, with a
>> cargo of pewter, beads, and other English goods, which were to be
>> exchanged for ivory and enslaved Africans. The next stop was Jamaica,
>> where the captain sold the cargo of Africans to plantation owners. On
>> the journey home, a storm sank the ship in the Straits of Florida in
>> July 1700, not to be discovered until 1972 by American diver, Melvin A.
>> Fisher. and later excavated.
>>
>>
>> The significance of the Henrietta Marie increased after its initial
>> excavation in 1983. Among the artifacts uncovered were over 80 sets of
>> shackles, two cast-iron cannon, Venetian glass trade beads, and the
>> largest collection of English-made pewter-ware from the reign of
>> William III (Britain, 1689-
>> 1702) ever found in one place. Also discovered werevstock iron trade
>> bars, ivory=2 0"elephant's teeth," basins, spoons, bottles, and the
>> ship's bell inscribed Henrietta Marie.
>>
>> An equally if not more valuable "treasure" is less tangible: the wealth
>> of information researchers have been able to uncover about the complex
>> maritime slave trade and the roots of racial inequality that still
>> exist today..
>>
>> PROPOSAL
>>
>>
>> Artifacts from any aspect of the maritime slave trade are extremely
>> rare. The discovery team believes that the objects found at the site of
>> the Henrietta Marie may be similar to what lies beneath the ocean with
>> the unnamed vessel currently entitled,
>>
>> The Maafa. As such, any items recovered will prove to be a "gold mine"
>> of information about a pivotal period in African, European and American
>> History. We feel that this historical find would be of significant
>> importance to document the horrific reality of the African American
>> slave trade.
>>
>> THE ACTION PLAN PHASE 1 - DISCOVERY
>>
>>
>> 2-3 months Pre-production
>>
>>
>> Preliminary exploration and research for eventual recovery and
>> preservation of the Maafa Project
>>
>> Assessment of the wreck site
>>
>>
>> Research
>>
>>
>> Archeological assessment
>>
>>
>> Mapping
>>
>>
>> Historical film documentation wi ll be ongoing
>>
>>
>> PHASE 2 - RECOVERY
>>
>>
>> 3-6 months
>>
>>
>> Full excavation of the Maafa dive site To include archeologists,
>> historians, and expert dive technicians Documentation & categorization
>> of artifacts
>>
>> Full film crew shooting to capture the recovery of history
>>
>>
>> Bring home the missing pieces of history & return it to it's rightful
>> owners.
>>
>> PHASE 3
>> - PUBLIC DISPLAY & REPARATIONS
>>
>>
>> The recovery of The Maafa is much more than a treasure hunt, 0A it is
>> the recovery of lost history.
>>
>> It would be our intention to create a team of experts from the
>> Smithsonian, the entertainment world and various universities to build
>> a case against the slave trade exposing to the world the horrific truth
>> that went on for centuries. We would hope a fund could be created from
>> the sale of the possible gold, antiquities and riches found on board
>> this vessel to be catalogued and documented in order to justify the
>> first African American Repatriation Fund in recognition to the horrors
>> and reality of the slave trade.
>>
>> COST
>>
>>
>> CONCLUSION
>>
>>
>> The discovery of these artifacts hopefully will give a glimpse into the
>> daily l ives of the Africans on board the ship as they made the journey
>> to the New World as slaves; the seamen who manned the ship and managed
>> its human cargo; and the traders who ran their notorious enterprise and
>> integrated it into the economies of their countries.
>>
>> It is our hope that the recovery of the shipwreck site off the coast of
>> Florida provides more pieces to the puzzle of African American History
>> and allows the revenue of The Maafa to be repatriated to it's rightful
>> owners…
>>
>> For more information contact: Carl Fismer [log in to unmask]" ymailto="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------------
>> s. e. anderson is author of "The Black Holocaust for Beginners" Social
>> Activism is not a hobby: it's a Lifestyle lasting a Lifetime
>> http://www.blackeducator.org
>> http://blackeducator.blogspot.com
>> ---------------------------------------
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Be Yourself @ mail.com!
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>>
>>
>
>