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seized 1,600 vessels and liberated 150,000 slaves, and played as important a role as the campaigners led by William Wilberforce in bringing slavery to an end.
    One of the most successful ships was poacher-turned-gamekeeper HMS Black Joke . A captured slave ship, she had originally sailed under the name of Henrietta . With a fair wind Black Joke was capable of overhauling the best on the coast and although only lightly armed she quickly became the scourge of the slavers.
    Among Black Joke ’s most notable conquests was the Spanish brig El Almirante . The slaver was sighted on 1 February 1829 and although her quarry was vastly superior in size and arms Black Joke immediately gave chase. The winds were light and variable and Black Joke had to resort to sweeps to close the gap. The chase lasted 11 hours under the blazing sun and the light was fading as a desperate duel began. When the Spanish vessel finally surrendered it had 15 crew dead and 13 wounded. Black Joke had suffered six wounded, two of whom later died. Over 450 slaves were found chained together in appalling conditions in the hold of El Amirante .
    In one year alone Black Joke took 22 ships and liberated 7,000 slaves. Sometimes she worked in tandem with another ship. In September 1831 she was sailing with the schooner HMS Fair Rosamond off the mouth of the Bonny River when they surprised two Spanish slavers. Recognising the Royal Navy ships the vessels fled back up the river and Black Joke and Fair Rosamond gave chase. As they were overhauled the Spanish began throwing slaves over the side. Some were chained together in pairs and quickly drowned. Others tried to make for the shore but were attacked by sharks and torn to pieces. The four vessels crammed on all sail as they raced up the river. Eventually the slavers were captured and what remained of their sorry human cargo given their freedom.
    HMS Black Joke met an inglorious end in May 1832. Her timbers rotten, she was condemned by Admiralty surveyors and burnt. All that remains of her is an envelope filled with brown dust in the Public Record Office at Kew in southwest London.
    There was a huge human cost for the men who served in the West Africa Squadron. Much of daily life was tedious and there was little chance of promotion as a result of a celebrated victory in a famous battle. Fever was rife and between 1830 and 1865 some 1,600 men in the West Africa Squadron died. In one year about 25 per cent of the officers and men died, a proportion 15 times higher than the navy had ever lost in wartime in any year.

Speedy topsail schooners were favoured by slave traders on the west coast of Africa .
F INEST SINGLE-SHIP ACTION
    During the War of 1812 the Royal Navy lost three frigates, HMS Macedonian , HMS Guerriere and HMS Java , to the young United States Navy. This was a bitter blow to the pride of a nation with such a long and proud tradition. Captain Philip Broke knew that his ship HMS Shannon could not match the big American frigates in size and firepower, but gunnery was one thing he could do something about. During his seven years as captain of Shannon he worked his ship to a peak of fighting efficiency with an unrivalled regime of gun drill. Every day, with the exception of Sunday, his men were exercised at quarters and firing at a target.
    In June 1813 Shannon engaged USS Chesapeake under Captain James Lawrence in an epic fight off Boston, the finest single-ship action in the age of sail.
    After Shannon fired a devastating broadside into Chesapeake Lawrence fell wounded but continued to give orders to return fire. A vicious hand-to-hand fight ensued as Broke himself led a boarding party on to Chesapeake . Lawrence bravely urged his men: ‘Don’t give up the ship!’ Three American sailors attacked Broke. He killed the first, but the second hit him with a musket and the third sliced open his skull before being overwhelmed.
    The entire action lasted only 11 minutes, but its unequalled ferocity (a projectile hit