The Pembroke Dockyard reading notes that an Ariadne captain was court-martialed after buying an enslaved woman at Zanzibar and taking her to sea. The Royal Navy strongly resisted captains bringing enslaved people aboard even while slavery's wider legal status remained contested. Everyone aboard needed an explicit role and protection under the Articles of War. An unregulated dependent person created legal, disciplinary, and morale problems that senior officers could answer by removing the captain responsible.
Notable Point · 1:55:45-2:02:05
Shipboard law left no place for enslaved passengers
The career of HMS Ariadne introduces a Royal Navy discipline problem: enslaved people aboard ship fell outside the protected and regulated categories of naval law.