View source for Kitty's Amelia (1803 ship)

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|Ship name=''Jeune Amélie''
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|Ship country=[[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]]
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|Ship name=''Kitty's Amelia''
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|Ship owner=Thomas Clarke, Liverpool
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|Ship fate=Foundered early February 1809; disappears from ''[[Lloyd's Register]]'' after 1809
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|Ship tons burthen=272<ref name=LoM>[http://www.1812privateers.org/Great%20Britain/marque1793-1815.htm "Register of Letters of Marque against France 1793–1815"; p.92] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150709083440/http://www.1812privateers.org/Great%20Britain/marque1793-1815.htm |date=2015-07-09 }}</ref> ([[Builder's Old Measurement|bm]])
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|Ship complement=*1804: 40<ref name=LoM/>
*1807: 42<ref name=LoM/>
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*1807: 6 × 9- & 6-pounder guns + 12 × 18-pounder [[carronade]]s<ref name=LoM/>
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'''''Kitty's Amelia''''' was ''Jeune Amélie'' launched in France in 1802. A British [[letter of marque]] captured her in 1803 and she became a [[Liverpool slave trade|Liverpool-based]] [[slave ship]] in the [[triangular trade]] in enslaved people. Between 1804 and 1807 she made four voyages transporting enslaved people, but her chief claim to fame is that she performed the last legal slaving voyage for a British vessel. She was reported wrecked in 1809.

==Career==
In 1803 the [[letter of marque]] and slaver ''Kitty'' captured the French ship ''Jeune Amèlie'' as she was returning from the Indian Ocean with a cargo of sugar, indigo, spices, and muslin.<ref name=Lees>Lees (2013).</ref>{{efn|''Kitty'' was a 20-year old ship, of 366 tons (bm), built in Liverpool. Her owner was Clarke & Co.<ref name=LR1803>''[[Lloyd's Register]]'' [https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015005667087?urlappend=%3Bseq=291 (1803), Seq. №K80.]</ref> Her master, Alexander Macdonald, had received a letter of marque on 9 August 1803. She was armed with twelve 9- & 12-pounder guns, and had a crew of 50 men.<ref name=LoM/> (Alternatively, she was armed with twenty-four 9-pounder guns.<ref name=LR1803/>)}}

''Kitty's Amelia'' entered ''[[Lloyd's Register]]'' in 1804 with Nuttall, master, and Thomas Clarke, owner.<ref name=LG1804>[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015005667095?urlappend=%3Bseq=618 ''Lloyd's Register'' (1804), Supplement, Seq. №K1.]</ref>

===1st voyage transporting enslaved people (1804)===
Thomas Nuttall received a [[letter of marque]] on 17 January 1804.<ref name=LoM/> She sailed on 13 February.<ref name=TAST82200>[https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/82200/variables Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database – ''Kitty's Amelia'' voyage #82200.]</ref> She was in company with {{ship||Laurel|1802 ship|2}} and {{ship||Urania|1800 ship|2}}. They were out only a few days when they encountered a French warship. Although they took some casualties, they were able to escape.{{sfnp|Hand|1932|p=70}} ''Kitty's Amelia'' arrived at St Kitts on 3 July, with 286 captives. She left St Kitts on 1 September and went on to Havana. She arrived at Liverpool on 10 October.<ref name=TAST82200/> ''Kitty's Amelia'' returned from Havana with a cargo of sugar, cowhides, and cotton.<ref name=Lees/> She had left Liverpool with 39 crew members and suffered five deaths on her voyage.<ref name=TAST82200/>

===2nd voyage transporting enslaved people (1804–1805)===
Nuttall sailed on 3 December 1804.<ref name=TAST82201>[https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/82201/variables Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database – ''Kitty's Amelia'' voyage #82201.]</ref> She was in company with ''Thomas'' and ''Juno''.<ref name=Lees/> ''Kitty's Amelia'' sailed to West Central Africa and [[Saint Helena|St Helena]]. Having acquired captives at the Congo River. ''Kitty's Amelia'' sailed from Africa on 24 May 1805. She was bound for [[Saint Barthélemy|St Barts]],<ref name=TAST82201/> at the time a Swedish colony. (The Swedes did not abolish the slave trade until 1813.) Near [[Saint Kitts]], crewmembers attempted a mutiny, a mutiny that Nuttall foiled. However, three mutineers managed to reach {{HMS|Saint Lucia|1803|6}} and accused Nuttall of having engaged in transgressions relating to the transportation of captives. she arrived at St Barts on 5 July, and there landed 210 captives, having embarked 288.<ref name=TAST82201/> The accusations against Nuttall forced him to remain in the Caribbean to answer the charges. ''Kitty's Amelia''{{'}}s mate, Thomas Forest, sailed her back to Liverpool from St Barts with a cargo of sugar and cotton.<ref name=Lees/> She left on 19 August and arrived back at Liverpool on 9 November. She had left Liverpool with 49 crew members and suffered seven crew deaths on the voyage.<ref name=TAST82201/>

===3rd voyage transporting enslaved people(1806–1807)===
Nuttall, having returned to Liverpool after having refuted the charges against him, resumed command of ''Kitty's Amelia''. He sailed on 6 May 1806,<ref name=TAST82202>[https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/82202/variables Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database – ''Kitty's Amelia'' voyage #82202.]</ref> bound for the Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands.<ref name=Lees/>

''Kitty's Amelia'' acquired captives at [[Bonny Island|Bonny]]. ''Kitty's Amelia'' arrived in Barbados, and then sailed to Trinidad, having repulsed an attack by a French privateer. She arrived at Trinidad on 23 October and there landed 280 captives.<ref name=TAST82202/> Nuttall was again forced to remain in the Caribbean, and Forest again sailed her back to Liverpool. Her return cargo consisted of ivory, hides, palm oil, cotton, coffee, indigo, and sugar.<ref name=Lees/> She left for Liverpool on 17 February 1807, and arrived there on 20 April. She had left Liverpool with 42 crew members and lost four on the voyage.<ref name=TAST82202/>

===4th voyage transporting enslaved people (1807–1808)===
''Kitty's Amelia'' underwent [[copper sheathing|coppering]] and repairs in 1807.<ref name=LR1809/>{{sfnp|Crow|1830|p=133}} Then on 1 July 1807 Thomas Forrest received a [[letter of marque]] for ''Kitty's Amelia''.<ref name=LoM/> The [[Slave Trade Act 1807|Act for the abolition of the slave trade]] had passed Parliament in March 1807 and took effect on 1 May 1807. However, ''Kitty's Amelia'' had received clearance to sail 27 April, before the deadline. Thus, when she sailed on 27 July, she did so legally. This was the last legal slave voyage for a British vessel.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2007/02/16/abolition_liverpool_slavery_story_feature.shtml BBC: ''Abolition of Transatlantic Slave Trade'']</ref> ''Kitty Amelia''{{'}}s owners had appointed Forest as master, but when [[Hugh Crow]] (or Crowe), returned to Liverpool on ''Mary'', they appointed Crow master and relegated Forest to chief mate.{{sfnp|Behrendt|1990|p=107}}{{efn|Amongst other vessels, he had captained {{ship||Will|1797 ship|2}}, ''Ceres'', and {{ship||Mary|1806 ship|2}} before sailing on ''Kitty's Amelia''.{{sfnp|Crow|1830|pp=77–82}}}} In his memoirs, Crow states that he commanded ''Kitty's Amelia'' from June 1807.{{sfnp|Crow|1830|pp=135–6}} Forrest resented his demotion and on the way to [[Kingdom of Bonny|Bonny]] took every opportunity to undermine Crow's authority. Crow then relieved Forrest of his position. Forrest died on the coast of Africa.{{sfnp|Behrendt|1990|p=121|loc=fn83}}{{efn|Another source states that Crow sailed on ''Kitty's Amelia'' as a [[supercargo]].{{sfnp|Grindal |2016|}}}}

On 27 October 1807 five slavers, one of them ''Kitty's Amelia'', left [[Bunce Island]]; they constituted the last legal convoy of British slavers. Because they were on a legal voyage, they qualified for a British [[Royal Navy]] escort by the 16-gun sloop {{HMS|Favorite|1806|6}}, under the command of Lieutenant Frederick Hoffman (acting). The voyage to Barbados from Sierra Leone took seven weeks. Several times during the voyage Hoffman visited the ships under his care and found them orderly and clean, and the captives healthy.{{sfnp|Grindal |2016|}} ''Kitty's Amelia'' arrived with 233 captives at Jamaica 25 January 1808.<ref name=TAST82203>[https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/82203/variables Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database – ''Kitty's Amelia'' voyage #82203.]</ref>

In contrast with Hoffman's assessment of the state of health aboard the slave ships, Crow, in his memoir, recalled that ''Kitty's Amelia'' had lost 30 whites and 50 blacks to sickness on the voyage, the whites included her two doctors, who had died shortly after she arrived at Jamaica. He further noted that many of the other slave ships that had hurried to beat the deadline for the end of the trade in enslaved people had lost twice as many blacks.{{sfnp|Crow|1830|pp=157–9}}

After loading a cargo for Liverpool, Crow decided to remain at Kingston to deal with some affairs. He entrusted the command of ''Kitty's Amelia'' to his friend Captain Thomas Brassey, who had sailed out on the schooner ''St George'', which also belonged to ''Kitty's Amelia''{{'}}s owners.{{sfnp|Crow|1830|p=169}} Brassey left Jamaica 24 April 1808 and sailed to Liverpool with a cargo of beeswax, [[palm oil]], elephants' teeth, [[Madeira wine]], rum, sugar, and coffee,<ref name=Lees/> arriving on 30 June.<ref>''Tradesman'', "Shipping List", Vol. 1, 1 August 1808, p.168.</ref> He arrived at Liverpool on 29 June.<ref name=TAST82203/>

Then in 1808 ''Kitty's Amelia''{{'}}s master became Roberts. She last appeared in ''Lloyd's Register'' in 1809 with Roberts, master, and trade Liverpool-The {{not a typo|Brazils}}.<ref name=LR1809>[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015005676385?urlappend=%3Bseq=237 ''Lloyd's Register'' (1809), Seq. №K65.]</ref>

==Fate==
''[[Lloyd's List]]'' reported that ''Kitty's Amelia'' had foundered in early February 1809 off [[Maldonado, Uruguay]].<ref>[http://www.1812privateers.org/LLOYDS/1809/05-05-1809.jpg ''Lloyd's List'' №4350.]</ref> She is no longer listed in the 1810 ''Lloyd's Register''.

==Notes==
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==Citations==
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==References==
* {{cite journal| last = Behrendt | first = Stephen D. | author-link = Stephen D. Behrendt | url = https://www.hslc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/140-5-Behrendt.pdf |date = 1990 | title = The Captains in the British slave trade from 1785 to 1807 | journal = Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire | volume = 140}}
* {{cite book |last=Crow |first=Hugh |year=1830|title=Memoirs of the late Captain Hugh Crow, of Liverpool; comprising a narrative of his life, together with descriptive sketches of the western coast of Africa; particularly of Bonny ... To which are added, anecdotes and observations illustrative of the Negro character. Compiled chiefly from his own manuscripts, etc. |publisher=Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green}}
* {{cite book|last=Grindal |first=Peter |year=2016 |title=Opposing the Slavers: The Royal Navy's Campaign against the Atlantic Slave Trade |publisher=I.B.Tauris |asin=B01MYTNUEH}}
* {{cite journal|last=Hand |first=Charles R. |title=The Kitty's Amelia, the last Liverpool slaver |year=1932 |journal=Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire for the Year |volume=82 |pages=69–80}}
* {{cite book|last=Lees |first=Andrew |title=Liverpool: The Hurricane Port |year=2013 |publisher=Random House}} 2013

{{Portal|Transport}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitty's Amelia (1803 ship)}}
[[Category:1802 ships]]
[[Category:Ships built in France]]
[[Category:Captured ships]]
[[Category:Liverpool slave ships]]
[[Category:Age of Sail merchant ships]]
[[Category:Merchant ships of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1809]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of Uruguay]]