''Leusden'' was a

Dutch West Indies Company The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ( ...

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 i ...

. Its sinking in January 1738 is thought to be the greatest single loss of life of its kind in the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and ...

Sinking

''Leusden''s final voyage was from

Elmina Elmina, also known as Edina by the local Fante, is a town and the capital of the Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abirem District on the south coast of Ghana in the Central Region, situated on a bay on the Atlantic Ocean, west of Cape Coast. Elmina was ...

to Surinam. It carried a cargo of around 700 enslaved men, women and children from Africa. On 1 January 1738 the ship was caught in a storm at the mouth of the Maroni in Surinam. It capsized slowly, which enabled the captain, Joachim Outjes, to form a plan of action. The captain and crew all managed to escape, along with 14 (in some accounts 16) of the slaves who had been taken up on deck in order to help them. Before departing, the crew deliberately nailed shut the hatches on to the deck so that the other slaves imprisoned below could not escape. Between 664 and 702 people died below deck, either from drowning or suffocation.

Aftermath

Those slaves who survived the sinking were sold at a public auction shortly afterwards. Several of the crew were rewarded by the Dutch West Indies Company for having rescued a casket of gold from the ship. The captain defended his decision to nail shut the hatches, by arguing that the victims might otherwise have started a slave revolt had he had let them reach the deck. He was acquitted. Johannes Postma suggests that the tragedy may have influenced the West Indies Company's later decision to quit the slave trade.

Citations

{{Authority control Deaths by drowning Dutch West India Company Maritime incidents in 1738 Maritime incidents involving slave ships Mass murder victims Slave ships