William Boats

William Boats (1716-1794) was a Liverpool slave trader.^[1] Boats was responsible for 157 slave voyages, over half of his slaves were sent from the Bight of Biafra to Jamaica.^[2]

Slave trading and privateering

Boats had shares in at least 156 Guineaman.^[3] In the book History of the Liverpool Privateers the author wrote that Boats was a waif found in a boat and enrolled in a Blue Coat School. It claims that he was apprenticed to the sea and rose to be a commander of a slave ship, becoming "one of the leading merchants and shipowners of Liverpool". Continuing, it says he married Ms. Brideson and captured a Spanish ship rich in gold and treasure. A Liverpool paper^[vague] which announced his death at the age of 78, called him a "most useful member of society".^[4]

Boats was the first slaver to have his ships sheathed in copper to prevent infestations of wood-boring parasites.^[5]

References

^ Richardson 2007, pp. 195.
^ Richardson 2007, pp. 29.
^ Richardson 2007, pp. 92.
^ Williams, Gomer (1897). History of the Liverpool Privateers and Letters of Marque. W. Heinemann. pp. 484–485. ISBN 9780722297797.
^ Richardson 2007, pp. 240.