The equipment of the regular slaver is attended with a large outlay;
in short, no expense is spared. She is run up for the voyage, and
should she be found strong enough for another, she undergoes a
thorough repair. In order to make her light and buoyant, her timbers
and beams are small, and screwed together: when chased, these screws
are loosened to give the vessel play. After the hull is built, she
is placed in the hands of the coopers, who erect, in the hold, huge
water-casks, called leaguers. On these are stowed the provisions,
wood, &c., above them, is the slave-deck. Thirty-six inches may be
considered a medium height, but they sometimes measure four feet six
inches, though occasionally only fourteen or eighteen inches,
intended for children only. The upper deck is generally clear,
except of the sweeps or oars for calms, &c. There is a covered
sleeping-place, about six feet long by three feet wide, on each side,
for the captain and pilot. Some have guns, but the system of arming
is by no means common now. When they carry a boat, it is a very
small one, and generally serves as a hen-coop. The rigging and sails
are fitted with a sailor-like neatness not to be surpassed.
The sails, on account of the frequency and force of the tornadoes,
are very low, and bent broad: thus the fore-yard of a brig of about
140 tons taken by H.M.S. 'Dolphin,' was seventy-six feet long, and
her ropes were so beautifully racked aloft, that, after a cannonade
of sixty shot, in which upwards of fifty had taken effect, not one
sail was lowered.
The following are the articles by which a slaver can be condemned, if
found on board: a slave-deck, or planks ready for a deck; slave-irons
and slave-coppers, which are a large cooking apparatus for the slaves
and crew, standing generally amid-ship of the upper deck; an extra
quantity of farinha, rice, water, or other provisions which cannot be
accounted for. The slaver leaves her port equipped with provisions,
wood, and water, for the return voyage, carrying the outward passage
stock, which frequently comprises all sorts of luxuries, on the
slave-deck. The officers consist of a captain, who tries to pass for
a supercargo or a passenger if taken, and whose salary is seldom less
than 250_1._ for each hundred slaves; a man called Capitano de
Bandiera, who acts as substitute for the captain if the vessel is
taken; a pilot, and a boatswain, frequently a superior class of
sailors.