Donna Marianna (1809 ship)

Donna Marianna (or Donna Mariana) was a vessel that left Liverpool in 1809. On 22 May 1810 HMS Crocodile seized Donna Marianna for breach of the Act for the abolition of the slave trade. The Vice admiralty court at Freetown, Sierra Leone, condemned Donna Mariana and her owners appealed the decision. The result of the appeal was a finding against the owners in a case that became an important milestone in the suppression of the slave trade.

The passage of the Act abolishing the slave trade does not mean that English vessels stopped trading slaves. A number of Liverpool merchants initially engaged in subterfuge, selling their vessels to nominal owners in other countries that had not yet abolished the trade. The case of Donna Marianna established the precedent that British warships could detain, and British Vice admiralty courts could condemn, vessels under foreign flags, and their cargo, where British ownership could be proved.

Donna Marianna was the American vessel Orion, which Samuel Macdowall & Co. of Liverpool purchased in 1809. They appointed a man named Vauralst as master, and sent her to Madeira with a cargo of culm. From Madeira she sailed to Pernambuco with a cargo of wine. There she was said to have been sold to a Portuguese merchant by the name of Da Silva.

From Pernambuco Donna Marianna sailed to Bahia under the Portuguese flag, carrying a cargo of wine of unspecified origin. From Bahia she sailed Cape Coast, having first taken on board "a variety of goods assorted for the Slave Trade". For this voyage she was under the command of Captain DaSouza, though Vauralst continued on board as supercargo.

On 22 May 1809 Crocodile seized Donna Marianna for breach of the Act for the abolition of the slave trade and sent her into Sierra Leone. The Vice admiralty court at Sierra Leone condemned vessel and cargo on 6 July 1810, though there is no evidence that there were any slaves aboard her.

Key evidence was the documents found in a passenger's trunk that showed that her fitting out for the slave trade had taken place at Liverpool.

The owners appealed, arguing that Donna Marianna was a Portuguese vessel and that therefore she and her cargo were not subject to British Law.

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Wikipedia