One of the newest members of the South Bay Model Shipwrights is Bob Reklis, a retired engineer, currently residing in Palo Alto. At our meeting in July, Bob talked to us about his project, researching the British brig Black Joke, with the intent to eventually build a full model of her.
The Black Joke was a slaver named Henriquetta, believed to have been built in Baltimore in 1824 and purchased by Brazillian owners in 1825. The ship, though known for her speed and maneuverability, managed to make six voyages, carrying over 3000 slaves in total from Africa to Brazil, but her career as a slaver ended in 1827 when she was captured by the British Royal Navy.
The Henriquetta was purchased into Royal Navy service, renamed the Black Joke and became part of the Navy’s West Africa Squadron in 1830. The ship was extremely successful. At the end of her service life, Peter Leonard, surgeon of HMS Dryad, was quoted as saying that the Black Joke “has done more towards putting an end to the vile traffic in slaves than all the ships of the station put together.”
Bob has been researching the vessel for some time now, and has made some interesting finds regarding plans of an American-built brig and probably slaver that historian Howard Chapelle suggests was probably that of a slaver, built between 1825 and 1830. It will be interesting to learn more about his research on this fascinating vessel, and to see the ship model that comes of it.
