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BNPS.co.uk (01202) 558833<br />
Picture: Bloomsbury/BNPS<br />
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A log book detailing how the Royal Navy led the way in freeing slaves being trafficked and around the world has emerged after nearly 200 years.<br />
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The journal was kept by a senior officer of the brig 'Black Joke' which regularly went into deadly battles with slave ships crossing the Atlantic.<br />
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Over a two year period the vessel captured 16 such ships and freed 3,970 slaves, most of whom were being taken out of west Africa by Spanish, Brazilian and Dutch boats.<br />
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Commodore Henry Downe's log documents the number of seamen on both sides killed and wounded in the conflicts as well as the slaves who perished en passage.

BNPS.co.uk (01202) 558833
Picture: Bloomsbury/BNPS

****Please use full byline****

A log book detailing how the Royal Navy led the way in freeing slaves being trafficked and around the world has emerged after nearly 200 years.

The journal was kept by a senior officer of the brig 'Black Joke' which regularly went into deadly battles with slave ships crossing the Atlantic.

Over a two year period the vessel captured 16 such ships and freed 3,970 slaves, most of whom were being taken out of west Africa by Spanish, Brazilian and Dutch boats.

Commodore Henry Downe's log documents the number of seamen on both sides killed and wounded in the conflicts as well as the slaves who perished en passage.