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I don't understand this bit: > "These ships were the 18-wheelers of their day. They were designed to haul a huge amount of cargo in relatively shallow water,"
by spraak 9y ago
I don't understand this bit:
> "These ships were the 18-wheelers of their day. They were designed to haul a huge amount of cargo in relatively shallow water,"
Yet this ship supposedly came from Africa. It's not shallow coming from Africa.
- folknor 9y agoI think what he means is that schooners specifically were made to be able to port/anchor in shallower waters than carracks and other long-haul oceangoing ships. Schooners were sometimes used in lakes and rivers as well. But that's just what I think, based on extremely limited understanding of the material. Hopefully someone can clarify and/or correct me.
- WalterBright 9y agoSmugglers would prefer shallow draft ships, because they couldn't dock in a regular deepwater port. A shallow draft would enable them to load/unload anywhere along the coast.
- NotSammyHagar 9y agoI think it refers to being able to go up shallow rivers to pick up or drop off, not being limited to deeper shore ports.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- jmaygarden 9y agoMobile Bay is fairly shallow, especially around the I-10 Causeway just south of this location. So, that makes perfect sense. Pensacola Bay to east is a much better natural deep water port, but the Alabama River made Mobile much more attractive for shipping goods inland.
- emmelaich 9y agoOne of the reasons the European/American slave trade was so "successful" compared to the Arabs is that Arab slave capturing and trading was typically only nearly the coasts. I guess large shallow boats such as this were part of that "success". edit- wikipedia confirms that Clotilde transferred slaves from Dahomey which is now in modern day Benin.
- jjawssd 9y agoEuropean/American slave trade was so "successful" compared to the Arabs because the "European/American" slave merchants and ship captains were predominantly wealthy, influential, and highly organized Jews. https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-from-freedom-to-slavery-1.5245587 https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-from-freedom-to-slavery-1.5...
- baddox 9y agoWould predominantly wealthy, influential, highly organized people who were not Jews not have been just as successful?
- aaron695 9y agoNo. They would not have had the structural resources the Jewish community had. Unless they were part of a large community? In which case which community?
- dang 9y agoWe've banned this account for repeatedly violating the site guidelines.
- supreme_sublime 9y agohttp://atlantablackstar.com/2014/06/02/10-facts-about-the-arab-enslavement-of-black-people-not-taught-in-schools/ http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/06/02/10-facts-about-the-ar... I don't know if it was really less "successful". It lasted longer, and enslaved more. Though it seems the route was more difficult because it was over land instead of by sea.
- curtis 9y agoThe ship was clearly capable of trans-Atlantic travel. However it belonged to a class of ships -- schooners -- which were optimized for shallow water. The Clotilda was built in 1855 and had presumably hauled a lot of non-human cargo before its final journey in 1860.