Meermin slave mutiny

The ship Meermin was a slaver ship active in the Indian Ocean in the mid-1700s. In 1766, it loaded a cargo of 140 slaves in Madagascar and sailed for Cape Town. Due to health problems, the slaves were allowed to walk on deck, without handcuffs or other restraints. Since they appeared to be peaceful, the practice was extended and the slaves were made to work as deck-hands. However, the slaves were secretly plotting a mutiny.

The mutiny broke out when one of the officers gave traditional African weapons (swords and spears) to the slaves and told them to clean them. The slaves killed a portion of the crew. The Captain and the rest of the crew found refuge below decks.

Since the slaves wanted to return to Madagascar, but could not sail the boat, while the crew could not fight its way back into control of the ship, the two sides negotiated a solution. The crew agreed to sail the ship back to Madagascar and to free the slaves, in return for being allowed to take the ship back after the slaves were released.

But the crew took advantage of the slaves' inability to navigate to sail the ship away from Madagascar and to Cape Town. At landfall, the leader of the slaves noticed that the coast didn't look right and was being approached from the wrong direction with respect to sunrise. But the leader of the crew managed to convince him that they had sailed around Madagascar and were approaching it from the east.

Nevertheless, the slaves remained suspicious, so 60 slaves took two of the ship's small boats and landed. They were supposed to light a fire on the beach if they had reached their homeland. But the white inhabitants on shore had seen the ship arrive and had sent an armed party to observe the landing of the small boats. The slaves were attacked with firearms and 14 were killed, the rest being taken prisoner.

This created a new standoff: the white inhabitants didn't know how to proceed, and the slaves on the ship were waiting to see if the fire would be lit on the beach. In desparation, a member of the crew wrote a letter explaning the situation, put it in a bottle, and threw it overboard, hoping the tide would carry the bottle to the beach and that it would be found on time to help them.

And this indeed was the case: the bottle was found, the letter was given to the authorities, who lit fires on the beach. The slaves who controlled the ship concluded that all was well so they cut the anchor cable and let the ship drift aground. The first slaves to reach the beach were captured; the slaves still on the ship saw this, so they attacked the crew. But the crew pointed out that the slaves could not prevail and that, if the fighting continued, they would all be killed. So the slaves laid down their weapons and were put into irons.

The leader of the slaves was imprisoned. Other slaves were severely punished or sold. The Captain of the ship was found to have been negligent and was stripped of his rank.