On this stamps of Sierra Leone the brig TRAVELLER is depict, belonging to the American Captain Paul Cuffee (1759-1817).
The TRAVELLER was built in 1807on Paul Cuffee’s yard just north of Ship Rock in the East River, Westport, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
The Liverpool Mercury of August 1811 gives:
On the first of the present month of August 1811, a vessel arrived at Liverpool, with a cargo from Sierra Leone, the owner, master, mate and whole crew of which are free Negroes. The master, who is also owner, is the son of American Slave.
Lloyds List of 11 Feb. 1812 gives that the TRAVELLER arrived at Sierra Leone under command of Capt. Cuffer.
In Lloyds Register of 1814 is given that the TRAVELLER under command of Capt. P.Coffee made a voyage from Liverpool To Sierra Leone. Tonnage given as 121.
In 1815-1816 he made a successful voyage from the U.S.A. with 38 colonists
At that time the entries in Lloyds were given by hand writing and many names are wrong spelled. But we can be sure it is the same vessel and the same man.
1820 She appears in History of the American Whale Fishery by Alexander Starbuck.
She was under command of Capt. Charles Howland, not an owner given and sailed in May 1820 from New Bedford for the Cape de Verdes, not given when she returned. Given as a brig. It must have been not a long voyage, the same year she sailed again, but now from Westport.
TRAVELLER, brig rigged under command of Howland sailed from Westport in 1820 for the Atlantic and returned May 1821, and last reported with 200 brls. sperm-oil.
Sailed on June 3 1821 from Westport under command of Capt. Dyer for the Cape de Verdes, returned 24 Dec. 1821 with 70 brls. sperm-oil.
She sailed again on 5 August 1822 under command of Phelps from Westport, bound for the West Islands, returned in 1822 with 70 brls. sperm-oil, in the remarks is given: Manned by blacks, that we can be sure she is the same vessel as on the stamp. There is not an owner given, only brig rigged. And that is the last time she is mentioned in the book, so her fate is unknown.
Paul Cuffee was the seventh child of Cuffe Slocum, a free black slave and Ruth Moses an Indian woman, and he was fourteen when his father died.
There was not any schooling, and Paul learned to read and write by his own efforts.
When he was sixteen he was sailor on a whaler, and some years later he got his own command on a vessel to the West Indies.
During the Revolutionary War he was captured by the British and held at New York for three months.
In 1778 the family dropt the surname Slocum a reminder of the slavery and take the Christian name, Cuffee as the family surname.
When he was 25 he married with Alice Pequit an Indian woman and he settled down in a small house near Westport River, where his boats could dock.
He acquired a vessel of 18 tons, manned by blacks and began fishing on the banks of St. George. Later he bought a other vessel of 25 tons and used it in whaling.
Making several profitable voyages.
In 1793 finding that his financial returns were promising, and making a call at Philadelphia, he purchased iron necessary for a schooner of seventy tons. Loaded it on board his vessel and sailed to Westport.
There he laid the keel of the schooner RANGER, which was launched in 1795. With this schooner he sailed to Norfolk, Virginia with a black crew and a cargo valued of $ 2.000. After discharging he heard that at the eastern Shore of Maryland a crop of Indian corn was ready for shipment, and at once he sailed there.
On arrival there, the natives were not so glad with a ship with a black crew, they were alarmed that their slaves would get ideas and tried to prevent the ship entry into port. But the papers were in order and there was no legal reason to refuse him entry.
After a few hostile days, he was treated with courtesy and loaded 3000 bushels of Indian corn, which he sold with a profit of $ 1.000.
Back home in 1797 he bought the house his family lived in and the adjoining farm which his brother managed.
After 1800 he built schooners at a dock on the farm property, ships which were mostly manned by Negro crews and Captains.
The dream of his life was to do something to alleviate the suffering of his race. The suggestion that black men embark to Africa, where they might find free soil grew on him. He thought of the free British settlement of Sierra Leone in Africa.
In 1810 he sailed in his brig TRAVELLER, to Sierra Leone, where he was met with great respect. He then sailed to London to confer with the British Colonialization Society, which agreed to defray the expenses of immigrants and to provide them with land and farming implements. Captain Cuffee bore the expense of the entire voyage.
He intended to return as soon as could be arranged when he got back to the United States, but the War with Britain in 1812 delayed the matter. It was not until 1815 after the war was over, that Captain Cuffee induced thirty-eight freemen to emigrate to Africa. Carrying them in the TRAVELLER, he arrived safely in Sierra Leone after a voyage of fifty-five days; he bore the total expense of $4.000.
Coming back with cargo and entering Norfolk, the customs officials who boarded the TRAVELLER detained the vessel. Captain Cuffee traveled straight to Washington, D.C. armed with letters of recommendation and he gained an audience with President Madison. He could convince the President that his cargo not was contraband, and the President ordered that the vessel was to be released.
The 160 Merino sheep on board as cargo where discharged, and said to be the second importation of such into the United States.
He arranged a third trip to Sierra Leone with the same object in mind, but he was stricken with a malady that resulted in his death in 1817 at the age of 59.
He is buried in “God’s acre”, in the rear of the Friends meeting house in Westport, the Central Village.
Sierra Leone 1984 30c sg826B, scott?, 1986 40le sg965, scott?
Mostly copied from: Captain Paul Cuffee, Master Mariner of Westport, Massachusetts, 1759-1817 by Katharina A. Wilder. Watercraft Philately Vol. 37 page 33.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3h485t.html
http://www.bridgew.edu/HOBA/Inductees/Cuffee.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3h484.html
http://www.s-t.com/daily/02-98/02-18-98/c021o090.htm