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The Slave Ship Fredensborg: History, Shipwreck, and Find*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Leif Svalesen
Leif Svalesen*
Affiliation:
Norwegian Maritime Museum
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Extract

During a violent storm the Danish-Norwegian frigate Fredensborg was wrecked on 1 December 1768, at Tromøy, an island outside Arendal in southern Norway. The long journey in the triangular route was nearly completed when the crew of 29 men, three passengers, and two slaves managed to save their lives under very dramatic conditions. The Captain, Johan Frantzen Ferents, and the Supercargo, Christian Hoffman, saved the ship's logbook and other journals. These, together with other documents which are in the national archives in Denmark and Norway, make it possible for us to follow the course of the frigate from day to day, both during the journey and after the wreck.

The Fredensborg was built in 1752-53 by the Danish West India-Guinea Company in Copenhagen. On its first journey in the triangular trade, and during five subsequent journeys to the West Indies, it sailed under the name of Cron Prins Christian. In 1765, when the Guinea Company replaced the West India-Guinea Company, taking over the forts on the Gold Coast and all trading rights and ships, the name was changed to Fredensborg, after the Danish-Norwegian fort at Ningo. At that time Denmark-Norway owned the islands of St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix in the West Indies and their need for slaves was growing.

They weighed anchor in Copenhagen on 24 June 1767 with 40 men on board, and anchored in the road at their main fort Christiansborg on the Gold Coast 100 days later, on 1 October 1767. Because of an inadequate supply of slaves, the Fredensborg remained in the road for 205 days. This had a very adverse effect on the health of the crew, with 11 deaths, including that of the Captain, Espen Kiønig. One of the deceased had drowned.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 22 , January 1995 , pp. 455 - 458
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1995

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Footnotes

*

I wish to thank Gariba B. Abdul-Korah, Christopher de Corse, and Selena Axelrod Winsnes for their interest, advice, and guidance to sources. Those interested in more information should contact: Aust-Agder Museum, Parkveien 16, 4800 Arendal, Norway; the Norwegian Maritime Museum, Bygdöynesveien 37, 0286 Oslo, Norway; or Leif Svalesen, Brattekleiv, 4818 Faervik, Norway. The following abbreviations have been used: RA Rigsarkivet in Copenhagen; GK Guineisk Kompani; KJ Kapteinen's journal; SJ Skipsassistentens [Supercargo's] journal.

References

Notes

1. RA GK: KJ no. 88; SJ no.109; first mate's journal no. 89.

2. In 1666 Denmark-Norway had taken possession of St. Thomas, to which no other country had laid previous claim. St. John, lying close by, was also claimed. St. Croix was purchased from France in 1733.

3. RA GK: no. 23 agent Carl H. Thalbitzer's protocol, pp. 41-62. The records of the sale contain precise information on the names of the purchasers, and it is possible to identify several of the plantations where the slaves from Fredensborg were sent. Among the slaves there were both Akwamu and Crepe (Anlo Ewe).

4. The cargo consisted of 277 casks of sugar, 4 bales of cotton, 1,044 bales of tobacco, 106,630 pounds of dyewood, 9 casks of cinnamon, and 300 planks of mahogany.

5. See National Archives in Kristiansand, Nedenes Land Registry no.28, f. 1b. The wreck was found on 15 September 1974 by the divers Odd K. Osmundsen, Tore Svalesen, and myself, in cooperation with Hartvig W. Dannevig.

6. The shipworm Teredo Navalis cannot survive in water of too low salinity. Along the Norwegian coast, however, it is very active, with the result that most of the wooden construction is destroyed. Usually it is the bottom section and objects that remain.

7. Of the total cargo of 42 large and 43 small tusks, 17 were recovered shortly after the wreck occurred. The find of complete tusks in the wreck, combined with pieces of broken tusks, make up close to the entire original cargo.

8. Hyemoschus Aquaticus, an animal the size of a cat, which lives in the rain forests from Sierra Leone in the west to Uganda in the east. It is very shy and difficult to catch sight of. Encyclopedia of the Animal World, 2:120.Google Scholar

9. The bones from the Fredensborg were analyzed by Pirjo Lahtipera at the Zoological Museum, University of Bergen. There have been a few references to peacocks in early sources dealing with West Africa. See de Marees, Pieter, Description and Historical Account of the Gold Kingdom of Guinea (1602), trans, and ed. van Dantzig, Albert and Jones, Adam (Oxford, 1987), 150–51Google Scholar, where he mentions them along with other animals and birds native to the area. However, Brun, Samuel in Jones, Adam, ed., German Sources for West African History, 1599-1669 (Wiesbaden,), 50, 58Google Scholar, in describing Loango and Soyo, respectively north and south of the Congo River, mentions two peacocks given as gifts to the kings in both places, remarking that peafowl had never before been seen there.

10. RA GK: KJ no. 88, p. 94.

11. For the volume of a chest see note 12. The stone found on the Fredensborg has a strong resemblance to one of many found at a dig at Ladoku and illustrated in Anquandah, James, Rediscovering Ghana's Past (Accra 1982), 8, fig. 1.3.Google Scholar

12. RA GK: SJ no.109, p. 120. The Danish chest before 1775 can be set at 20 bushels, one bushel equaling 35.24 liters. See Hernæs, Per O. “The Danish Slave Trade From West Africa and Afro-Danish Relations on the Eighteenth-Century Gold Coast.” (Thesis, Universitetet i Trondheim, 1994), part IV, 32-33.Google Scholar

13. RA Vestindisk-guineisk archive no. 216. There is no specification as to sex or age of the slaves.

14. According to regulations, Saturday was to be a day free of tobacco, but ships' captains did not always adhere to this rule. On Saturday, 7 May 1768 pipes and tobacco were distributed to all the male and female slaves. See RA KJ: 7 May 1768.

15. A complete list of inventory for the Fredensborg's last journey is in RA GK nos. 52 and 53. It includes 150 leg iron bolts, 300 leg irons, 15 hand iron bolts, and 30 hand irons.

16. Hernaes. “Dutch Slave Trade,” Part III, p. 85, table 5.

17. In The Danish Sound between Sweden and Denmark, toll was collected by Denmark from 1429 to 1859, during which more than two million ships passed the toll stations. The heavy traffic underscores the importance of the Norwegian outports, and resulted in many wrecks along that coast.