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''Guerrero'' was a Spanish slave ship which wrecked in 1827 on a reef near the Florida Keys with 561 Africans aboard. Forty-one of the Africans drowned in the wreck. ''Guerrero'' had been engaged in a battle with a British anti-slavery patrol ship, HMS ''Nimble'', stationed on the northern approaches to Cuba. ''Nimble'' also ran onto the reef, but was refloated and returned to service. The two ships were attended by wreckers, who rescued the Spanish crew and surviving Africans from their ship and helped refloat ''Nimble.'' Spanish crew members hijacked two of the wrecking vessels and took almost 400 Africans to Cuba, where they were sold as slaves. Most of the remaining Africans were eventually returned to Africa.〔Shearer:8-9 Swanson:14-16〕 ==History== The history of the ship is unclear. Because the slave trade to Cuba was illegal in the 1820s, ships that successfully delivered a cargo of slaves from Africa to Cuba were often destroyed or registered under a new name to avoid confiscation by the Spanish authorities. The British Consul in Santiago, Cape Verde reported in 1827 that the ship then known as ''Guerrero'' was the former ''James Monroe'', which was launched in 1813 in New London, Connecticut, and had served as a privateer during the War of 1812. ''James Monroe'' made two trading voyages to France during the war, capturing a total of six British ships on those voyages. It made at least two more crossings to France after the end the war. Its later history is unclear, in part because a number of American ships were named for James Monroe after he became President of the United States in 1817.〔Malcom:6-9 Swanson:25〕 The ship known in 1827 as ''Guerrero'' was heavily armed. She carried four long brass 12-pounder guns and ten iron 12-pounders, and carried a crew of 90 or more men. Such large, well-armed slave ships often engaged in piracy, robbing smaller ships of their cargoes, including slaves. Prior to 1826 the ship was known as ''San Jose''. In June 1826 a brig then known as ''Pepe'', likely the ship later known as ''Guerrero,'' sailed from Havana for Africa. A few days later a "Spanish" brig stopped and robbed a sloop on its way from Bermuda to Norfolk, Virginia. Late in July what probably was the same brig robbed two American ships anchored at Cape Mesurado in Liberia. Two British warships were dispatched to catch the pirate ship, now identified as ''Pepe''. The British ships caught up to ''Pepe'', but it managed to escape during a heavy rainstorm. ''Pepe'' loaded about 600 Africans at Gallinas (near the border between present day Sierra Leone and Liberia) and delivered about 570 of them to Cuba late in the year.〔Malcom:2-4, 6-9 Swanson:7-8〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Guerrero (ship)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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