David K Bird

The Slave Trader David K Bird

It sounded like a routine request when admiralty issued the order but in reality they had no idea how our squadron would carry out such a task. Portsmouth headquarters issued every item of information they held that might assist us in our search at the explicit order of Admiral Sir Henry Fairfax the Commander of both the naval yard and the ships assigned. Six ships would sail the known slave routes in search of this illusive "Slave Trader" who was reported to be an Englishman of some considerable standing among merchants. We faced a considerable obstacle, searching thousands of miles of ocean from known slave ports to the Windward Islands and the Americas beyond but remained confident that we would eventually triumph over adversity. Our research was beginning to slowly yield results but we needed to be thorough, a wrong assumption could result in days or even weeks of wasted effort. As we set sail from Portsmouth we knew we had a formidable task before us but we remained positive.