Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott MP was at the helm of the ship as it made its way into Albert Dock on Sunday August 19, in time for the opening of the city’s new International Slavery Museum on August 23, UNESCO Slavery Remembrance Day.
Prescott, an ex-steward on board merchant ships in the 1950s, was joined by 11 former crewmates who sailed together on the Liverpool to New York route.
Also on board were three UK students, Michael Simon, 19, Saphra Ross, 20, and Nadia Waithe, 22, from the former slave ports of Bristol and Liverpool, who had sailed across the Atlantic from her launch in New Haven, Connecticut on June 21 2007.
 |  | John Prescott MP with, from left to right, students Michael Simon, Saphra Ross and Nadia Waithe. Photo Albert Novelli |
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“I am so proud that young people from the former slave ports of Bristol, Liverpool and London have played a part in this historic tour, spreading tolerance and respect across the world,” said Prescott.
The ship moored at Falmouth in Cornwall before making its way to Liverpool, where it will stay until August 26 before heading to Bristol from August 29 to September 9 and then Canary Wharf in London on September 13 or 14.
It is making a 16-month, 14,000-mile tour of the infamous slave trade triangle with stops at more than a dozen Atlantic ports that played a part in the trade. After its UK stops it will be making its way to Portugal, Madeira, Tenerife and on to the west coast of Africa heading to the Caribbean and the east coast of the USA.
The schooner is a copy of the original 19th century Amistad, which was at the centre of a remarkable story.
Amistad will travel some 14,000 miles in total. Photo Albert Novelli | |  |
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In 1839, 53 Africans were kidnapped from West Africa and sold into the transatlantic slave trade and purchased illegally in Havana, Cuba, where they were transferred to the schooner Amistad to be taken to another part of the island.
During the journey the enslaved Africans rose up against their captors, killing the captain and cook, and ordered the crew to sail to Africa. After 63 days, Amistad and her ‘cargo’ were seized by the USS Washington near Long Island and the Africans were held on charges of murder.
The case took on epic proportions when former US president John Quincy Adams successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court on behalf of the captives. In 1841, the 35 surviving Africans were returned to Africa.
“The Amistad incident is a truly inspiring story which rightly holds a significant place in the history of the struggle to end the barbaric trade in human beings,” said Prescott. “I sincerely hope that people from Liverpool, Bristol and London will visit the Amistad during its UK tour and learn more about this remarkable story.”
