Rebecca (1805 ship)

History
United Kingdom
Name	Rebecca
Launched	1802, Charleston
Acquired	1805
Captured	1805
General characteristics
Tons burthen	265,[1] or 272[2] (bm)
Complement	34
Armament	16 × 4&6-pounder guns[2]

Rebecca was launched at Charleston in 1802, possibly under another name. She first appeared in online British sources in 1805. In 1805, Rebecca began a voyage as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people but fell prey to Spanish privateers after she had embarked captives.

Rebecca first appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1805.^[1]

Captain William Thompson sailed from Liverpool on 18 March 1805. He acquired captives at Loango and Cabinda.^[3]

In December 1805, Lloyd's List reported that Rebecca, Thompson, master, William, Christie, master, and Clarendon, Grice, master, had been captured at Angola on 1 September.^[4] They were among the seven vessels off the Congo River that had fallen prey to a privateer.^[a] The privateer was described as being of 22 guns and 350 men. Rebecca's captor sent her to the River Plate.^[5]

A second report named the captors as L'Orient, of 14 guns, and Dromedario, of 22 guns. The captured vessels arrived in the River Plate before 12 November.^[6]

Spanish records report that in June 1805, Viceroy Sobremonte, of Argentina, issued two letters of marque, one for Dolores (24 guns), Currand, master, and Berro y Errasquin, owner, and one for Dromedario (20 guns), Hippolito Mordel, master, and Canuerso y Masini, owner. The two sailed for the African coast, looking to capture enslaving ships. In three months of cruising Dolores captured three ships and one brig, carrying a total 600 enslaved people. Dromedario captured five ships, carrying a total of 500 enslaved people.^[7]

Rebecca's entry in the 1806 volume of the Register of Shipping (RS), carried the annotation "Captured".^[2]

In 1805, 30 British slave ships were lost. Thirteen were lost on the coast of Africa.^[8] During the period 1793 to 1807, war, rather than maritime hazards or slave resistance, was the greatest cause of vessel losses among British slave vessels.^[9]

• Anon. (1864). "History of the Argentine Republic: First English invasions, 1804–1806". River Plate Magazine. 2. Buenos Aires Typographical Society: 17–21.
• Inikori, Joseph (1996). "Measuring the unmeasured hazards of the Atlantic slave trade: Documents relating to the British trade". Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer. 83 (312): 53–92. doi:10.3406/outre.1996.3457.