LOADING HOGSHEAD SUGAR IN THE WEST INDIES

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aukepalmhof
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LOADING HOGSHEAD SUGAR IN THE WEST INDIES

Post by aukepalmhof » Sat May 29, 2021 12:04 am

The ship's boat in the foreground is a boat which is called “moses” of which Aak to Zumbra gives:
The “moses” is a double-ended craft of which many were transported to the West Indies, where they lightered hogshead of molasses from shore to off-lying ships; the single model, manned by one oarsman carried one cask in a special cradle; the double type carried two casks. The “Moses“ which conveys the hogshead from the shore to the “drogher”, is tremendously strong.
V-shaped timbers fit the hogshead.
Reported lengths 2.4 – 5.5m: e.g. length4.88m, beam 1.83m, depth 0.81m. shallow draft
The two-vessel in the background at anchor were called “droghers” of which Aak to Zumbra gives:
Used in the West Indies, a coasting vessel used in the early sugar trade. Lateen sail Decked forward. Set a lug or lateen sail. The “moses” bring the hogshead alongside the “drogher” from shore. The tonnage from the “drogher” is generally 45 tons.
The hogshead was rolled in the boat via a ramp made of two wooden beams, the boat was put on her side, which made it easier to roll the hogshead in the boat, then the boat was righted again by manpower and rowed to the vessel where it was hoisted on board via a hand-powered windlass, or by hand-powered hoisting, what is visible on the nearest vessel.

The miniature sheet has been designed after an aquatint illustration of Willoughby Bay in Antigua. It has been taken from a work by William Clark in which he depicts and describes the various processes involved in sugar cultivation in the early nineteenth century. Blocks of sugar were packed into large wooden barrels known as hogsheads. Each hogshead would weigh between 800 and 1500 pounds. There were no wharves on the island at this time so boats were rowed to the shore where the hogsheads would be rolled onto them down a ramp. A brick-built hut can be seen to the left of the picture. This would have served as a storehouse for plantations that were some distance from the coast.
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex ... c9u0001000

This print is taken from William Clark’s ‘Ten views in the island of Antigua, in which are represented the process of sugar making, and the employment of the Negroes’ (Thomas Clay, London, 1823). It shows the production of sugar, from planting to harvest, from processing to shipping. It depicts a group of well-dressed slaves planting sugar cane. After the cane was harvested and processed into raw sugar, it was loaded into barrels, known as hogsheads, and shipped to Britain for refining and sale. The first sugar plantation was established in 1674 by Sir Christopher Codrington. By the end of the century, a plantation economy had developed, slaves were imported from Africa and the central valleys were deforested and replanted with sugar cane. To feed the slaves, Codrington leased the neighbouring island of Barbuda from the British Crown and planted it with food crops. As Antigua prospered, the British built fortifications around the island, turning it into one of their most secure bases in the Caribbean. The military could no secure the economy, however, and in the early 1800s the sugar market began to bottom out. With the abolition of slavery in 1834, the plantations fell apart. Although the slave trade had been abolished by the time of Clark’s visit, slavery itself still existed. Yet his images, intended for publication in Britain, showed nothing of the suffering of the enslaved and, if taken at face value, would have given quite the wrong impression of slave conditions to the British public.

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collectio ... 42966.html
Antigua & Barbuda 1984 $5 sg MS868, Scott?
Attachments
shipping sugar (2).jpg
1984 Willoughby-Bay (2).jpg

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