By Jared Samuelson
CDR Ryan Mewett, PhD takes a short break from schooling Midshipmen to teach us about the Royal Navy’s role in Caribbean contraband trade. Ryan is a Permanent Military Professor at the U.S. Naval Academy specializing in the history of early modern Britain and the British Atlantic.
Download Sea Control 518 – The Royal Navy and Caribbean Contraband Trade with CDR Ryan Mewett, PhD
Links
1. “It is ticklish meddling with the navy”: The British navy and Caribbean contraband trade, c. 1713–1750, by Ryan Mewett, International Journal of Maritime History, December 10, 2023.
Jared Samuelson is Co-Host and Executive Producer of the Sea Control podcast. Contact him at Seacontrol@cimsec.org.
This episode was edited and produced by Johann Porisch.
the early 18th century Caribbean economy of extraction submerged following the mass wrecking of the 1715 fleet, off Florida ladened with twelve million pounds sterling, sparking an Atlantic world gold rush. Hosting a serious problem for the Royal Navy on the Jamaica station, already adding to the consternation Spanish officials at Havana. In the wake of the Plate fleet disaster, the jack tars on the HMS Diamond, at Port Royal started jumping ship, five a day, in some cases headed for the the wreck site,” and the bank of Spain deposited on the ocean floor. Scores of Royal Navy crewmen “all mad to go a wrecking, to fish [ salvage] upon the wreck, though the Spanish have not quitted them” still the property of his most Catholic Majesty Philip V of Spain. currently at peace with England. The Royal Governor of Jamaica Lord Archibald Hamilton. A known player in the islands underground pirate economy attempted to enlist the service of captain Davis of the sloop of war HMS Jamaica, in a foray on the wrecks, but was promptly turned down. Both commodore Balchen and Captain Davis, were a credit to the service, in what could have evolved into serious geo-political situation in the early 18th Caribbean. Kevin Rooney