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archeologist in the Bahamas have identified the underwater wrecks of 14 sailplaning ship involved in the trans - Atlantic striver trade wind between Africa and the Americas , a novel composition finds .
The crash admit the Peter Mowell , an American schooner that fall off off Lynyard Cay near Great Abaco Island in 1860 with about 400 enslaved Africans on board ; as well as smaller vessels that carry striver to plantation for sugar , coffee , cotton and baccy in North America and around the Caribbean .
A 19th-century illustration of Brooks (or Brook, Brookes, or Bruz), a British slave ship. Historians estimate that more than 12.5 million Africans were transported across the Atlantic to the New World on slave ships between 1525 and 1866.
Most of the wreck internet site have been identify only from 18th- and 19th - century records and stay undiscovered , but the locations of some of them have already been found .
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The team has physically locate three of the wrecks , but " for now , they are all under wraps,“Carl Allen , CEO and laminitis of the subaqueous archeological group Allen Exploration , separate Live Science in an email . " These wrecks are not only historically important for investigating what life was like on slaver ship , [ which is ] poorly sympathize archaeologically , but they are physical witnesses to the cognition pedestal behind this dreaded trade . "
One of the slavers' ships, the General Oglethorpe, was en route in 1802 between Charleston, Virginia and Havana, Cuba when it was wrecked during a storm near Little Abaco Island.
Fatal trade
The slave ships were identified during Allen Exploration ’s Bahamas turn a loss Ships Project , which is collect an stock of every wreck around the islands . So far , the squad has identified 596 wrecks in the waters around the northerly Abaco islands , and the one-time is from 1657 .
The group is working on the project with the Bahamas Maritime Museum in Freeport on Grand Bahama , which published the news report on the slave ships in itsOcean Dispatchesseries to coincide withBlack History Month .
Michael Pateman , director of the Bahamas Maritime Museum and co - author of the paper , assure Live Science that the chronicle of the Bahamas was deeply influenced by several slaving events . They include the arrival of the first slaving vessel from Africa in 1721 , which define the population of the islands;more than 90%of the mass who live there today are of African descent .
Another slave ship, the Nancy, was wrecked amid surf and rocks in the northern Bahamas in 1767. It was carrying a former slave named Olaudah Equiano, who survived the wreck and wrote about his experiences.
The Bahamas were also the scene of the1841 insurrection on the slave ship Creole , which was transporting hard worker from Norfolk , Virginia , to New Orleans . But some of the 135 enslaved people on board the ship seized it and forced it to sail to the Bahamas or else , where they claim their freedom — a major milestone in the history of the trans - Atlantic hard worker craft , Pateman said .
The wrecks ' locations show that the Bahamas dish up as a major crossroad between Africa , the American Southeast , Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico .
The region is known for its bad atmospheric condition , but " it was the safest route , " James Jenney , director of research for the Bahamas Lost Ships Project and co - author of the report , told Live Science in an email .
The Bahamas Lost Ships Project has identified the locations where 14 slaver vessels are known to have been wrecked amid the islands of the northern Bahamas.
Island route
For many of the crash in the northern Bahamas , the ships slump when they were head south from American ports toward the Northeast Providence Channel between Grand Bahama and Andros Island . " If you wanted to get to Havana and Cuba ’s sprawling plantations , you had to risk these weewee , " Jenney said .
The refined sugar plantations in Cuba were an especially dire destination for enslaved Africans .
" Conditions variegate , but the fact that Havana was known as the ' feast place of last ' tell it all , " underwater archaeologist Sean Kingsley , director ofWreckwatch Internationaland carbon monoxide - author of the written report , severalize Live Science .
The Bahamas Maritime Museum in Freeport is involved in the effort to identify the slaver ships. This display there describes the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
He noted that enslave African workers lived in wretched army hut said to be " unfit for the abode of wild wildcat " ; they wore iron slave collar and worked seven days a hebdomad , with just four 60 minutes a daytime of rest in cane - cutting time of year . About 10 % of enslave Africans died on the plantations in Cuba each yr during the striver craft , and some were flogged to dying , he said .
The next steps include diving to some of the wrecks to see what ’s left , in some case after more than 200 years since the ships sink .
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Report co - authorJames Sinclair , director of archaeology for Allen Exploration , said many were in shallow , warm waters and " in high spirits energy zone " — that is , with a hatful of waves and storms — that have negatively impacted the sites .
The sugar plantations on Cuba were among the worst destinations; about 1 out of 10 among all the slaves on the island died every year.(Image credit: Los Ingenios: Coleccion de vistas de los principales ingenios de azucar de la Isla de Cuba - Havana, 1857)
" Our goal is to record what ’s left and figure out how to better preserve uncommon corpse , " he told Live Science .
