John Hawkins encouraged the Africans to enter his boat “Jesus of Lubeck,” otherwise called “The Good Ship Jesus.” for salvation.
The people who entered soon found out they could not leave the ship.
Jesus of Lubeck Ship
Jesus of Lubeck was a cruising ship built in the City of Lübeck in the mid-sixteenth century.
By the year 1540 the ship was purchased by Henry VIII, King of England, to expand his fleet.
Jesus of Lubeck was later chartered to John Hawkins in 1562 by Queen Elizabeth I after it sank during a Battle.
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Jesus of Lubeck ( “The Good Ship Jesus”) and John Hawkins
The ship became associated with the Atlantic slave exchange under John Hawkins.
He effectively coordinated four journeys to West Africa and the West Indies somewhere in the range of 1562 and 1568.
300 Africans were captured from Sierra Leone and later sold to Spanish ranches in the Americas.
A record holds that Hawkins who professed to be a passionate Christian found the Sierra Leoneans harvesting their yields.
He then, at that point, continued to tell the locals of a God named Jesus and of paradise and hell,.
A while later he asked those among them who tried to have Jesus as their saviour to enter his ship “Jesus of Lubeck,” otherwise called “The Good Ship Jesus.”
The people who entered soon out found they were barred from leaving the ship .
They were shipped to Spanish estates in the Americas. There Hawkins exchanged them for pearls and sugar.
Jesus of Lubeck Slave Trade Business
Hawkins’ slave trade business involved cruising for the West African coast with the assistance of other corrupt African chiefs, he kidnapped residents.
Hawkins viewed the slaves as freight/cargo to be shipped to the Americas and sold as cheaply as possible for the exchange of coffee, tobacco, cocoa, sugar, and skilled labor.
While a few other Englishman had proactively taken slaves from Africa by the mid-fifteenth Century, John Hawkins successfully set the example that became known as the English slave exchange triangle.
English Slave Exchange Triangle
He was viewed as the primary English dealer to benefit from the Triangle Trade.
By selling the supplies he got from the Americas to African chiefs, in exchange he got slaves in return to work in the Spanish states of Santo Domingo and Venezuela in the late sixteenth century.
His missions were worthwhile to the point that Queen Elizabeth I supported his journeys with more ships and weapons.
She likewise provided him with a unique coat of arms bearing a bound slave.
The Last Journey of the Ship
During the last journey, Jesus of Lubeck alongside a few other English ships faced Spanish ships off San Juan de Ulúa in September 1568.
In the subsequent fight, Jesus of Lubeck was impaired and caught by the Spanish powers.
The damaged ship was subsequently sold for 601 ducats to a nearby dealer.
The End of John Hawkins
Hawkins passed on the 12 November 1595 in San Juan, off the shoreline of Puerto Rico.
He was going to save his son child Richard who was held in imprisonment by the Spanish in the South Atlantic.
Hawkins came into limelight in June 2006, over four centuries after his death.
His alleged relative, Andrew Hawkins, openly apologized for John Hawkins’ activities in the slave exchange.
Andrew and 20 companions from the Christian foundation Lifeline Expedition bowed in chains before 25,000 Africans.
He asked for forgiveness for his progenitor’s contribution in the slave exchange at Independence Stadium in Bakau, the Gambia.
The group apologized in French, German and English – the dialects of the countries involved in the African slave exchange.
The Vice-President of the Gambia Isatou Njie Saidy removed the chains as a sign of forgiveness