Log of the proceedings of H. M. S. Comus

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A folio-sized single-signature logbook (a) and case (b) interdicting the proceedings of the H.M.S. Comus. Constructed of rag paper, stitch-bound – pamphlet style, with a marbled blue laminated rag paper cover, the 95-page book details standard ship information and anecdotal accounts of the illegal slave trade along the West African coast. Written by Captain John Taileur between 2 October 1814 and 8 June 1815, the logbook offers first person evidence of the H.M.S. Comus’s disruption of the illegal West African slave trade and suppression of piracy. Each page is ruled and neatly written on. A bright square paper with “No. 3” written in the middle, is adhered in the laminated front of the book and there are no markings on the reverse of the log book. The book is housed in a brown fabric covered hard case (b), and the spine has a red and gold label which reads: [LOG / OF THE / H.

Explore Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture ↗