''Parr'' was launched in 1797 at Liverpool as a

slave ship Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea coast ...

in the

triangular trade Triangular trade or triangle trade is trade between three ports or regions. Triangular trade usually evolves when a region has export commodities that are not required in the region from which its major imports come. It has been used to offset t ...

in enslaved people. She was lost in 1798 in an explosion on her first voyage.

Origins

''Parr'' was built in Liverpool and named for owners Thomas and John Parr, members of an eminent local slave-trading family. She was built to accommodate seven hundred captives. ''Parr'' was not only the largest Liverpool slave ship, but at 566 tons (bm), the largest vessel in the entire British trans-Atlantic trade in enslaved people.

Voyage and loss

''Lloyd's Register'' for 1797 had a ''Parr'', 450 tons (bm), of Liverpool, Christian, master. Captain David Christian acquired a letter of marque on 5 December 1797, and sailed for the

Bight of Biafra The Bight of Biafra (known as the Bight of Bonny in Nigeria) is a bight off the West African coast, in the easternmost part of the Gulf of Guinea. Geography The Bight of Biafra, or Mafra (named after the town Mafra in southern Portugal), between ...

and Gulf of Guinea Islands on 5 February 1798; he acquired captives at

Bonny Island Bonny Island is situated at the southern edge of Rivers State in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It is near Port Harcourt. Ferries are the main form of transport to and from the island. The local language spoken on Bonny Island is Ibani, ...

. ''Lloyd's List'' reported that ''Parr'', Christian, master, caught fire and blew up in 1798, off the coast of Africa as she was sailing from there for the West Indies. At the tme she had the full complement of captives aboard. Twenty-nine of her crew and some 200–300 captives were saved. Christian died in the explosion. (Two or three years earlier he had been master of when she too had caught fire while gathering captives.) Other records indicate that ''Parr'' had a crew of 97 men and had embarked some 200 captives. The surviving captives were shipped on other vessels. In 1798, 25 British slave ships were lost. Twelve of the losses occurred on the coast of Africa.

Citations

References

* * * * * {{1798 shipwrecks 1797 ships Ships built in England Liverpool slave ships Age of Sail merchant ships of England Maritime incidents in 1798 Maritime incidents involving slave ships Ship fires Shipwrecks of Africa Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean