HMS Nimble (1826)
| History | |
|---|---|
 Gran Colombia
|
|
| Name: | Bolivar |
| Launched: | 1822 |
| Fate: | Purchased by Royal Navy |
 United Kingdom
|
|
| Acquired: | 1826 |
| Renamed: | Nimble |
| Fate: | Wrecked in 1834 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen: | 168 (bm) |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 22 ft 2 in (6.8 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 9 ft 5 in (2.9 m) |
| Sail plan: | Schooner |
| Complement: | 41 |
| Armament: |
|
HMS Nimble was a Royal Navy 5-gun schooner-of-war. She was employed in anti-slave trade patrol from 1826 until 1834, when she was wrecked on a reef with the loss of 70 Africans who had been rescued from a slave ship.
In 1818 the United Kingdom and Spain entered into a treaty forbidding the importation of slaves into Spanish territories. One provision of the treaty set up a Mixed Commission Court in Havana to deal with Spanish ships caught by the Royal Navy while trying to carry Africans to slavery in Cuba. A similar British-Portuguese court in Sierra Leone ruled on Portuguese slave ships caught by the Royal Navy. The Nimble was assigned to the squadron that the Royal Navy maintained on the approaches to Cuba to enforce the provisions of the treaty. Slave ships captured near Africa and their cargoes of Africans were taken to Sierra Leone for disposition. Spanish slave ships captured near Cuba were taken to Havana to be dealt with by the Mixed Commission Court, while Portuguese ships caught in Caribbean or North American waters had to be taken to Sierra Leone. Despite the efforts of the Royal Navy, large numbers of Africans continued to be carried to slavery in Cuba, in part because Spanish officials in Cuba were often complicit in the illegal slave trade. More than 64,000 Africans may have been illegally landed in Cuba between 1822 and 1829.
She was built in 1822 as the Gran Colombian schooner Bolivar. She may have been used as a slave ship at some point in her career. After the Magpie-class schooner Nimble (built by McLean of Jamaica) was rejected as unsatisfactory in 1826, the Royal Navy purchased Bolivar, renamed her Nimble, and assigned her to the Royal Navy's West Indies Squadron. In Royal Navy service, Nimble carried four 18-pounder (8.2-kg) carronades and one 18-pounder cannon.
From the records of slave ships captured, it is clear that Nimble was engaged in the interception of slavers throughout the years 1827 to 1834.
On 19 December 1827 Nimble ran aground near the Florida Keys while engaged in a gun battle with the Spanish slave ship Guerrero. Guerrero sank and 41 Africans imprisoned in the hold drowned. The crew and 520 surviving Africans were rescued from Guerrero by wreckers. Spanish crew members from Guerrero hijacked two of the wrecking vessels and escaped to Cuba with 398 of the Africans. The remaining 120 Africans were taken to Key West. Nimble had lost her rudder when she went aground, but the wreckers helped Nimble's crew float her off the reef and fit the rudder from Guerrero on her.
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Wikipedia