EXCLUSIVE: Businessman says Britain has ‘little or no to apologise for’ over slave commerce as he raises funds for brand new £70,000 statue in honour of Royal Navy sailors who died serving to to free greater than 150,000 slaves

A businessman who has proposed a £70,000 plan to construct a memorial to the 17,000 sailors who misplaced their lives combating to finish the slave commerce says Britain has ‘little or no to apologise for’.

Semi-retired administration guide Colin Kemp, 76, has launched a fundraising marketing campaign to construct a monument to the Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron, which freed greater than 150,000 slaves over the course of six many years within the nineteenth century.

At its peak, the squadron took up 50 per cent of the navy’s funds – after Britain banned the slave commerce in 1807. 

Mr Kemp has secured the backing of famend sculptor Vincent Grey, who has designed a statue that may very well be put in in Portsmouth, the house of the West Africa Squadron. 

The proposed monument depicts a slave earlier than abolition, a naval officer and a freed slave. 

A businessman who has proposed a £70,000 plan to construct a memorial to the 17,000 sailors who misplaced their lives combating to finish the slave commerce says Britain has ‘little or no to apologise for’. Above: The monument proposed by semi-retired administration guide Colin Kemp, 76

Talking to MailOnline, Mr Kemp mentioned: ‘I’m patriotic, I believe we have now received little or no to apologise for. Slavery was clearly terrible, nobody of their proper thoughts may help it however it occurred.

‘Doing the statue completes the story. Britain did good, we had been the primary to cease it.’

The West Africa Squadron was fashioned in 1808 to assist in the abolition of the slave commerce.

Round 2,000 sailors died in direct fight, whereas an extra 15,000 died after succumbing to illnesses and sickness on their voyages. 

At their peak within the 1840s and 1850s, British anti-slavery operations concerned 36 ships and 4,000 sailors. 

The operation amounted to round two per cent of presidency expenditure. Total, 1,600 slave ships had been captured and its prisoners liberated. 

The squadron ceased working in 1867, after the transatlantic commerce had been suppressed. 

Mr Kemp mentioned: ‘I like historical past, however I had by no means heard of the West Africa Squadron. 

‘I began trying into it. It is completely fascinating. 

‘One of the vital fascinating issues is that at its peak it took half of the royal navy funds, or the equal of two per cent of GNP, which in in the present day’s phrases could be an infinite sum of money.’

He added: ‘I commissioned a bit of analysis, of 189 individuals just one had heard of the WA Squadron, I believe that wants placing proper. 

‘We stood alone and did it on our personal.

The Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron, freed greater than 150,000 slaves over the course of six many years within the nineteenth century. Above: A portray by Reverend Robert Ross-Lewin – the chaplain on anti-slavery ship HMS London – displaying Royal Navy sailors chasing a slaver ship close to Zanzibar

Anti-slave ship the Black Joke had itself been used to hold slaves till it was captured and remodeled by the Royal Navy. Above: A portray depicting the Black Joke’s seize of Spanish slave ship the Almirante 

The captain of the Black Joke, Lieutenant Henry Downes, spent each idle hour charting El Almirante’s probably route, accounting for location, currents and season

‘I believe that sums it up fully. I’ll by no means defend slavery. I’m pleased with what we did to cease it.’

Requested if he agrees with increasing calls for Britain to pay reparations to nations affected by the slave trade, Mr Kemp added: ‘I believe it’s absolute garbage, it is nonsense. We’ve got fairly a big abroad help funds. 

‘I do not agree with slavery. It was terrible, it was horrible, however no, we must always not pay reparations.’

His undertaking, which has thus far raised almost £900 since being launched final weekend, has already acquired some backlash on-line.

After it was supported on X – the social media platform previously often called Twitter – by revered legislation professor Dr Wanjiru Njoya, some critics took purpose on the undertaking. 

Dr Njoya had mentioned: ‘1000’s of British sailors died combating slavers off the West African coast.

‘But in the present day many individuals haven’t heard of this squadron. Their sacrifice is forgotten.

After it was supported on X – the social media platform previously often called Twitter – by revered legislation professor Dr Wanjiru Njoya, some critics took purpose on the undertaking

Critics took purpose at Dr Njoya’s help for the proposed memorial to the West Africa Squadron

‘Please help this sculpture in case you can. We should always bear in mind them and guarantee future generations will bear in mind them.’

She added in one other submit that Britain ‘stood for liberty’. 

However one critic mentioned: ‘”Britain stood for liberty”, are you joking?’ 

One other replied: ‘You are entitled to your view and to marketing campaign for a memorial to the Royal Navy West Africa Squadron, Wanjiru. 

‘You are not entitled to applicable British and West African historical past and inanely accuse ‘us’ of an absence of gratitude.’

Mr Kemp, from Chichester, hopes that, if his fundraising goal is reached, the memorial may very well be accomplished inside six months after which put in at a yet-to-be-determined location in Portsmouth. 

Sculptor Mr Grey beforehand designed a monument to Battle of Trafalgar hero Horatio Nelson, which was put in in Chichester. 

It was handed a design award by the Sussex Heritage Belief final yr. 

In 1827, sailors of the West Africa Squadron caught the Henriqueta slave ship off the coast of West Africa.

It had lately been laden with greater than 500 would-be slaves. It was sure for the Bahia, a sugar-cultivating area in Brazil.

The lads of HMS Sybille fired cannon balls on the ship’s rigging to destroy its sails and masts while sparing the lives of these onboard.

The Navy then set about reworking the Henriqueta right into a ship that would search out slave vessels.

Renamed the Black Joke, she seized 11 slave ships on behalf of the crown and a few of her 50-strong crew had been freed Africans. 

Round 3,000 liberated Africans – moderately than being transported throughout the Atlanic – had been resettled in Freetown, Sierra Leone, the capital of British West Africa.

In 1829, the Black Joke engaged in a battle with the infamous slave ship the El Almirante. 

The heavily-armed, purpose-built vessel had acquired warning that the Navy had been coming however the males of the Black Joke nonetheless triumphed.

The El Almirante was captured and onboard had been discovered cryptic letters revealing the situation of secret slave-trade routes to Havana. 

Colin Kemp, 76, is a semi-retired administration guide from Chichester

In 1831, the Black Joke captured a Spanish slave ship, the Primero, after a chase that lasted an entire day. 

The slave deck was discovered to be filled with 311 individuals, with greater than half being youngsters. 

After somewhat over two years of labor for the Navy, the Black Joke was declared unfit for service and was set ablaze off the coast of Freetown. 

To donate to the West Africa Squadron memorial marketing campaign, go to https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/westafricasquadron.