Memorial window dedicated to Vice Admiral George W Preedy, who was in charge of the "Agamemnon" that laid the first transatlantic cable in 1858.
The inscription reads -
In memory of Vice Admiral George William Preedy C.B.
who when Captain of HMS Agamemnon with the Captain
of the USS Niagara successfully laid the first Atlantic
Cable uniting Europe and America in 1858"This distinguished naval officer, though not Devon-born, is celebrated mainly for his captaincy of HMS Agamemnon which was involved in the laying of the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858.
What is not widely known is the role played by Preedy as a young midshipman during the Royal Navy’s campaign against the slave ships.
He entered the Navy on 12 November 1828 as a volunteer on board HMS Ranger, a 28-gun frigate. Under its captain, William Walpole, he sailed from Portsmouth on 3 January 1829, heading for Jamaica.
When Ranger was sold in 1832, Preedy followed Captain Walpole on HMS Pallas, again sailing for the West Indies on 20 January that year.
Preedy is recorded as being constantly engaged in the suppression of the slave trade until May 1834. On one occasion, it seems, he served on HMS Nimble, a five-gun schooner, which was employed on anti-slave trade patrols from 1826 until 1834 when the ship was wrecked.
Contemporary accounts leave one in no doubt that this terrible trade was still thriving in spite of the fact that Britain had signed abolition treaties with Spain and Portugal in 1818.
Britain itself had already outlawed the Atlantic slave trade, making it illegal for our ships to transport slaves and the Royal Navy had established a West Africa Squadron to enforce the ban. The British government had consequently negotiated treaties with other countries to give the Royal Navy the right to intercept and search their ships for slaves.
A notable exception, it seems, was the United States, which refused such permission. The 1807 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves had technically abolished the intercontinental slave trade in the United States but the ban was not widely enforced and many of the slave ships which escaped the blockade were destined for the southern United States.
On 13 July 1832, off the Isle of Pines, the second largest island of Cuba, Nimble detained the Portuguese slave ship Hebewith its master, Domingo Jozéd Almeida. The 401 slaves on board, were landed at Nassau and the case was taken to Sierra Leone where the British and Portuguese Court of Mixed Commission, on 25 Oct 1832, sentenced the vessel to be condemned and the surviving slaves to be emancipated.
On 10 November 1833 Nimble captured the Spanish slave ship Joaquina, carrying 348 Africans, after a battle near the Isle of Pines. The Spanish captain and two captive Africans were killed in the battle, another African died later of his wounds, and Joaquina sank.
The account of the episode was graphically described by Nimble’s Commander, Lieutenant Charles Bolton, in a letter written a week later and dated16 November:
‘I beg to acquaint you, that I arrived this day, at this port, in his Britannic Majesty's schooner, Nimble, with the Spanish slave-schooner, Joaquina, captured on the morning of the 10th inst. off the Isle of Pines. At daylight on the 10th inst. a sail was discovered about 9 or 10 miles to leeward, standing in for land. All sail was immediately made in chase, and having greatly the superiority of sailing, I soon made her out to be a large schooner, which we were closing very fast. When within three or four miles the stranger, perceiving there was no chance of escaping by sailing, wore round, shortened sail, and hove-to to receive us ; being then seven or eight miles from the south-west point of the Isle of Pines. I soon afterwards took in studding-sails and square sail, and prepared for action, still bearing down upon him; he then hoisted Spanish colours and fired a blank gun, when I hoisted our colours, and as soon as we were within musket-shot (to ascertain positively what he was) I ordered two muskets to be fired over him, which he returned by a well-directed shot from a long 12-pounder.
I immediately opened fire upon him, closing as quickly as possible. The wind now becoming very light, he continued receiving and returning our fire until within half pistol-shot, when, having received two 8-pound shot between wind and water, several through his upper works and sails, his mainmast cut nearly through, and rigging much damaged, the captain desperately wounded (since dead), he struck his colours, and cried for quarter. His defence was most obstinate and desperate, continued nearly an hour, and he fought worthy of a better cause.’SOURCE - (
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Here (
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