In the Caribbean it was a busy month in June 1829, five years before the British declaration of emancipation freed all slaves in its dominions, by land and sea. On the oceanic fronts, however, the battle against slavers continued for several more decades and apparently intensified after the 1834 Slavery Abolition Act, particularly for the West Africa Squadron.

The British had the right to seize and search vessels, but especially Spanish and American (transiting into Cuba) and Portuguese and Brazilian (shipping to Brazil). Over six decades, the squadron captured about 1,600 ships and freed 150,000 souls.

One of the officers of note of that force was Edward Harris Butterfield, but I make no further claim in such a Bermudian name. There is irony, perhaps, in that the ship he served on in the Preventive (West Africa) Squadron began life as a slaver but was captured by the British and renamed HMS Black Joke.

We had mentioned that one Bermuda-built vessel, HMS Morgiana, was involved early in the fight against slavery trafficking on the high seas, only a few short years after the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. Another of our Bermuda cedar creations was the third Royal Naval vessel with the name of “Pickle”, a small schooner of three guns.

Dr Henry Campbell Wilkinson, whose series of four books on Bermuda history will forever be a deep mine of silver and gold for inquisitive scholars, wrote about four ships that were built here in the 1820s for the Royal Navy, after a hiatus in such trade for two decades.

They were to be built along the lines of the swift HMS Assiduous and the first was HMS Minx. There then followed in early 1827, Pickle, Pincher and Skipjack. The last captured several slave ships, while Pincher intercepted the inappropriately named African Free Trader and another Spanish slaver, with a total of 719 enslaved people aboard.

In the same month of June, 1829 that HMS Monkey captured Midas, HMS Pickle engaged a much larger vessel on the 6th instance, as elucidated by writer Jeremy Black in an October 2020 article in The Critic, “The Royal Navy in the front line against slavery”, subtitled: “It is wilfully forgotten that the Royal Navy was central to ending the slave trade”.

“The Voladora was larger and had a crew twice the size but the Pickle under J.B.B. MacHardy closed and after an action of 80 minutes the Voladora, the mainmast shot away, the sails repeatedly holed, and rigging trailing over the stern, surrendered.

“The British had lost four men, their opponents at least 14; 223 African men and 97 African women who had been bought in Africa were freed, 32 slaves had already died on the voyage. The British crew imprisoned the slavers in their own chains. The victory was celebrated in Britain, with memorable paintings depicting the plucky triumph of the smaller crew.”

As with the contemporary illustration of HMS Monkey apprehending the Spaniard Midas, a lithography print was made of the Bermudian HMS Pickle taking the Voladora and several oil paintings were also executed. Sherer’s record of anti-slaver work in the Caribbean in 1829 is encapsulated in the Military History of the Royal Navy, 1816–1856, as below.

“Lieutenant Joseph Sherer, who was appointed to the Monkey on the West Indies station in October, 1828, and transferred to the Nimble, 5 [guns], in August, 1829, was one of those who made for themselves enviable names at that time. In the Monkey, a vessel of only 75 tons, mounting one long 12-pr. [pounder] on a pivot, and carrying but 26 men, he made prize, in April, 1829, of the Spanish schooner Josepha, carrying one 12-pr. gun, a crew of 21 men, and 207 slaves; and, on June 27th following, after a 35 minutes' action, of the brig Midas, of 360 tons, mounting four long 18-prs. and four medium 12-prs., with a crew of more than 50 men, of whom 1 was killed and 3 were wounded. In her 400 slaves were captured. In the Nimble, in November, 1829, Sherer took the Gallito, of one 9-pr., with 16 hands and 136 slaves on board. He was, in consequence, made a commander, as from December 30th, 1829.”

To hear it directly from Sherer, his logbook, now at Yale University, records part of the encounter with the slaver Midas on 27 June, 1829.

“PM 12:30 on getting within grape[shot] range of Stranger she gave us a broadside. Rounded to immediately & fired into her with the long gun & musquetry upon which after a sharp exchange of fire a little after 1 [pm] her colours were struck & they hailed to say they had surrendered. Sent the boat on board to take possession found Stranger to be the Spanish Slave Brig Midas from Bonny [Nigeria] to Havana.”

On HMS Dee, Joseph Sherer returned to our sphere of naval activity on the North America and West Indies Station for a brief period in 1838–1841 but apparently took no part in any further anti-slavery duties on the high seas of the Atlantic and Caribbean.

The main purpose of that station and its fleets, of course, was to keep a check on the US Navy, which yearly grew in strength, perhaps commensurate with the growth of the nation itself. Slavery continued in some states until its final abolition in late 1865 with the passage of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

• Dr Edward Harris is the founding executive director emeritus of the National Museum of Bermuda