Liverpool black history researchers discover slaver ship advert from 1805

By Chris Osuh, The Guardian

Ad, which states vessel can hold ‘about 185 slaves’, comes to light as city dock is being turned into ‘contemplation space’

An advert for a 19th-century British slaver’s ship has been discovered in Liverpool, where a site formerly at the centre of the transatlantic trade in enslaved people is being transformed into a “contemplation space”, highlighting a long-hidden history.

Liverpool Black History Research Group (LBHRG) found the advert for the Metis, dated 25 July 1805, while looking into the history of the River Mersey’s Canning Dock, in work commissioned by National Museums Liverpool.

The 220-year-old ad, which was placed in Gore’s Liverpool General Advertiser, reads: “Apply to Lake and Brown: We have on sale by private contract, the remarkably fast sailing ship Metis, Liverpool built, about nine years old, copper fastened on the stocks, is very well found and will carry by the present act, about 185 slaves. Now lying in No 3, graving dock, where she may be inspected.”

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