THE H.M.S. ARIEL AT MOMBASA

By Daniel Karanja
AjabuAfrica.com
New Bedford, MA

This is the story of a British Naval ship fighting slave traders at Mombasa in February 1862. It comes to us through Rev. Charles New in his Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa which were his memoirs of his life in East Africa. When he answered the call to be a missionary in East Africa, he and three others were personally brought to Mombasa by Dr Krapf. The following is an event that took place between the H.M.S. Ariel and the slave traders at Mombasa soon after the new missionaries landed and were getting acclimated to the area. He tells it so well, it is copied here verbatim;

“Just at this time a skirmish occurred in the harbour of  Mombasa, between the officers of one of our cruisers, the Ariel, and some Suri Arabs. The latter had freighted a vessel with slaves, with the purpose, as was well known, of proceeding with this human cargo to one of the ports of South Arabia. Two of the Ariel's boats put off to the rescue. As soon, however, as they were seen to approach the harbour, the Arabs disembarked their slaves with all speed, and sent them ashore. On came the English, but they sprang on board the slaver a little too late; she was empty. The captain, however, was conducted to the governor of the fortress, and asked to produce his papers. This he.was unable to do, and the English considered they were authorized to seize the vessel. They were proceeding to do so when the Arabs opened fire upon them. The English returned the fire briskly, but thought it best for the time to retire.
“Upon the retirement of the English boats the natives cooled down; complacent feelings perhaps crept over them at what they no doubt considered a great victory. To have repulsed the " fire-eating" Wazungu, must have greatly elated them, though the victory was only imaginary. Such indeed proved to be the case.
“The English boats in retreating were simply practising a ruse. At four o'clock next morning they returned to the fray. They pounced upon a large Arab baghala, and a sharp contest ensued. The Arab captain and several others of his crew were killed, and one of the sub-lieutenants on the side of the English was wounded. The noise of firing roused the people of the town, and great consternation reigned. The vessel was of course taken, then tugged outside the harbour she was set on fire.

CONTEXT

Since the abolition of the slave trade by the British in 1808, the nation had been engaged on a worldwide campaign to extend the same by the use of treaties, international agreements and at times what was later termed “gun boat diplomacy”. The exertions of the British, the degrees to which they went to get his done and the resistance from all quarters is rarely given justice. There are also volumes upon volumes on the Atlantic slave trade but a scattered few regarding the same campaign on the Indian Ocean. But we digress, that is a story all by itself. Now back to the H.M.S. Ariel.
To combat slave trading on the Indian Ocean, a dedicated squadron from the navy was stationed at Cape Town and the Ariel was one of this. The laws about slave trading and slavery changed over time and at any given moment they never applied equally to all nations. There were nations such as Portugal that continued plying the trade for many decades though under stricter regulations. Even for nations under which slave trading was allowed, the British Navy had very specific orders to follow. For some time, only vessels on which slaves were onboard could be condemned as slave traders and this is why the merchants in this story upon seeing the British approach only attempted to disembark their human cargo. As time went on, only the fitting of a ship for this purpose was required but this took a while to happen. Captains and senior officers of ships going out on these anti slave trade patrols were provided an updated copy of all he applicable laws, treaties and international regulations which might apply and quite a few officers in the navy were punished for failing to observe them.
The slave traders on the other hand employed all manner of tricks and technicalities to avoid capture. These included changing flags to get an advantage, embarking slaves on hidden creeks and bays where observation was difficult and the manipulation of log books to hide their adventures. So it was a game of hide-and-seek.
Sometimes the twists and turns of these slavers as they sought to avoid capture can make a fictional thriller dull by comparison. Take for instance the case of the Maria, schooner flying the Spanish flag while plying the Atlantic Ocean trade routes in the 1820’s. In 1827 she was in Calabar, Nigeria waiting for a chance to load her human cargo. The problem was a British navy patrol lurking nearby which however could not touch her as long as she had no slaves physically on board. The Maria then adopted a trick; she sailed off and had a French vessel embark the slaves (the French being exempt from search by the British at the time). So the human cargo was loaded onto the French vessel and then trans-shipped to the Maria on the high seas. All seemed well until the Maria fell in with pirates who took all her cargo except one sick slave left in the holds. She (the Maria) in turn became a pirate and captured another slaver heading for Brazil from the Congolese coast. This is the cargo that she was trying to off load in Cuba when she was jumped by the H.M.S Skipjack. Unfortunately she purposefully managed to run aground and off load her human cargo before the Skipjack caught up with her.

Contact writer for comments at: dkaranja@ajabuafrica.com

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