Sold for $3,465

Small quarto, contemporary three quarter calf over marbled boards, spine gilt (covers worn, spine cleanly separted from text block at upper joint). 183pp with daily entries spanning 6 August 1829 -16 February 1830 (minor toning and dampstaining, last page torn at bottom right corner). A detailed British naval log recording shipboard activities, cruising data such as winds, weather, location, and sails utilized, as well as descriptions of encounters with other vessels including slave ships.

HMS Atholl encounters with slavers from various countries include the following:

"1st October 1829...Chase altered course....boarded La Laure Schooner under French Colours from Shebar to Guadaloupe with slaves on board, sent an officer to count the slaves who found 372, sent a mate, Midshipman and 10 men to navigate her to Sierra Leone...." Later that same month the Atholl "landed 119 slaves taken from the Spanish Schooner by the detained vessel...."

Working alongside the HMS Sybille, on "9th December 29...Boarded and took Possession of the Brazilian Brigantine Amelia from Ajuda bound for Bahia with 187 Slaves on board, sent two officers and 12 men to navigate her to Sierra Leone...." One the 30th of December, Atholl gave chase and intercepted "the Dutch Brig LaLouise with 225 slaves on board Sent a mate and 8 men to take charge of her...."

The HMS Atholl was the first of a series of fourteen Royal Navy sailing sixth-rate post ships built to an 1817 design. Constructed at Woolwich Dockyard, the 500 ton frigate launched in 1820 with 28 guns and a crew of 175 men. Operating in 1829 under special "Instructions for the Suppression of the Slave Trade," the ship joined the West African Squadron based out of Freetown, Sierra Leone, and patrolled the seas off the coast of Africa. As part of its enforcement of the British embargo on the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, the HMS Atholl was authorized to stop and board suspected slave ships and confiscate those ships found to imprison enslaved Africans. The HMS Atholl continued to operate off the coast of West Africa until 1832 when it was detached outfitted as a troop ship.