MADE ON THE ISLE OF WIGHT: WATERWITCH – THE ROYAL NAVY’S FASTEST SLAVE TRADER HUNTING VESSEL

In this week’s edition of Made on the Wight we examine the illustrious history of the Waterwitch – arguably the finest historic ship to have been built on the banks of the River Medina – which played a vital role in combatting the slave trade in the 19th century. The Waterwitch was the fastest ship of its class in the world when built. After being purchased by the Royal Navy, it was responsible for the capture of at least 43 slave trading vessels and the freeing of up to 26,000 slaves off the West coast of Africa. The story of the Waterwitch begins in 1802 when shipbuilder Thomas White acquired the shipbuilding site on the East bank of the River Medina, moving his business from Broadstairs in Kent. In 1825, he rebuilt the site, which became the Falcon Yard – which is still in operation today as GKN Aerospace. Thomas White was also responsible for the construction of the Thetis Yard on the West bank of the river towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars, on the marsh between Medina and Arctic Road. The person who funded the building of the Waterwitch was the sailing enthusiast George Chichester, Earl of Belfast. The wealthy nobleman lived at Cowes when not engaged in parliamentary duties in London. He was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron, founded in 1815. The 3rd person responsible for the Waterwitch was George Ratsey of Cowes: a world-beater in sail-making. In the 1820s, the Earl of Belfast’s specialists – Ratsey and White – built him the cutter Harriet, a specialist racing yacht. Harriet was so successful that the aristocrat decided to change his focus from a fore-and-aft rigged to a square-rigged vessel. In 1832, the revolutionary 334-ton brigantine Waterwitch was launched on the Medina, using the finest racing sails money could buy from George Ratsey. The Earl hoped that his craft could improve the sailing qualities of the Royal Navy by competition and example. The Royal Navy were reluctant to race their ships against Waterwitch. In 1834, the Earl of Belfast’s brig took on the crack Royal Navy Channel Squadron between Dover and the Isles of Scilly. The Isle of Wight-built vessel was said to have outperformed all Royal Navy vessels on every point of sailing and in all strengths of wind.

The same year, Lord Belfast won a 1,000-guinea bet (£100,000 in today’s values) by racing the Waterwitch against the fastest big yacht of its time – the schooner Galatea – to the Eddystone Lighthouse and back, returning victorious. The Earl of Belfast had hoped that the success of his vessel would encourage the navy to use Thomas White as their shipbuilder and George Ratsey as their sailmaker. Instead, they simply purchased the Waterwitch for the sum of £3,656 (£393,000 in today’s values). However, the Navy were still jealous of the success of the Waterwitch against their vessels – for this reason, she never became HMS but was termed HMB (Her Majesty’s Brig) Waterwitch. The illustrious sailing vessel was immediately dispatched to the West Africa Squadron – based on the remote South Atlantic island of St Helena – where she was seen as the ideal vessel for chasing slave trading ships. There, the Waterwitch became possibly the most successful slave trader hunting vessel of all time. The United Kingdom abolished the slave trade in 1807. The following year, the slave ship busting West Africa Squadron was formed. It took until 1848 for France to abolish slavery, 1858 for Portugal to follow suit, and 1862 for the practice to be banned in the United States. Remarkably, slavery only ended in Brazil in 1888 and Saudi Arabia in 1962. It still persists to this day in Africa, with slaves openly sold in Libya in the 21st century. An observer of 1 of the slavers’ ships brought into St Helena described the horrors he witnessed:

“The whole deck, as I picked my way from end to end to avoid treading on them, was thickly strewn with the dead, dying and starved bodies. Yet these miserable, helpless objects being handed over the ship’s side, one by one, living, dying and dead alike, were human beings. Their arms were worn down to the size of a walking stick. Many died as they were passed from the ship, but there was no time to separate them from the living.”

Of the 26,000 souls rescued by the West Africa Squadron, 8,000 died on St Helena and were buried in a mass grave. Of those who survived, some remained on the South Atlantic island, others were either relocated to British colonies or returned to Africa. Many of St Helena’s present-day inhabitants are descended from rescued African slaves. Some bear the surname ‘Waterwitch’ in honour of the vessel that saved them. The Waterwitch continued to ply her trade until 1861 when – damaged by her efforts in a hostile climate and made obselete by the arrival of steam-powered craft – she was broken up. When her duties on the island of St Helena were completed, a memorial was built there in her honour.

The memorial inscription reads:

“This column was erected by the commander, officers and crew of Her Majesty’s Brig Waterwitch to the memory of their shipmates who died while serving on the coast of Africa AD 1835-1843. The greatest number died while absent on captured slave vessels. Their remains were either left in different parts of Africa or given to the sea, their graves alike undistinguished. “This Island is selected for the record because three lies buried here and because the deceased, as well as their surviving comrades, ever met the warmest welcome from its inhabitants”.

In 2022, the names of 3 more crew members of the Waterwitch – which had been omitted from the original monument – were added on a further plaque.

The three were: Ben Jumbo, ‘Captain of the Guard’, died at sea February 1842. Tom Coffee, died at sea, 12th January 1841 Isaac George, ‘an African lad’, died at sea 15th July 1839 In the next edition of Made on the Isle of Wight, Island Echo will look at some of the futuristic jets designed by Saunders Roe in the 1940s and 1950s of the previous century, which never got beyond the design and prototype stage.