Captain Edward Columbine and the West Africa Squadron

Perhaps as a result of his Caribbean experiences, Captain Edward Columbine became convinced of the need to abolish the slave trade, and in 1809 he accepted an Admiralty nomination to join a commission for the examination of the African littoral from the Gambia to the Gold Coast. This commission had been urged on the government by the African Institute, and the other members had been nominated by William Wilberforce. Columbine had deployed to the region in June 1808 as Commodore for the trial deployment of a West Africa squadron, based at Goree. But war-time exigencies had allowed him only the sloop Derwent (18) in addition to his flagship Solebay (32). The conflict with France also took priority and Columbine mounted an expedition to eject the French from their last stronghold on the coast, Saint-Louis, from which small privateers had been harassing British shipping. This was a hazardous amphibious operation during which the force crossed the notorious bar at the cost of eight lives, including the captain of Derwent, and the wreck of two ships. Columbine’s two warships passed the narrow channel of the River Senegal and anchored to commence a bombardment. While Columbine led the landing parties, the Master of Solebay ran her ashore in the complex inshore waters whilst attempting to get closer to the enemy batteries. The ship was a total loss. Cleared by court martial, Columbine was allocated Crocodile (22) as replacement.

Dissension in the administration of the new Crown Colony of Sierra Leone, which had been established in 1807, now led to Columbine’s additional appointment as Governor, on a temporary basis. In 1810 he finally reached Freetown, where his administration was short-lived. His second wife Ann and his two children had accompanied him. Ann and their daughter died of fever, and Columbine’s son Edward was sent home to recover. By May 1811 Columbine himself was too ill to continue. He died of yellow fever during the homeward passage of the Crocodile when she was ‘one hundred leagues to the westward of the Azores’. Tragically, fulfilling the fears in the last will and testament which he drew up onboard, the younger Edward had predeceased him. The Gentleman’s Magazine published the tribute of one of its correspondents: ‘It is not right that a man of Captain Columbine’s uncommonly fine talents (not merely in his profession, but as a scholar) should die and be unnoticed … It might with great truth be said that he died in the service of his Country; as his active exertions in Africa, to put an end to the Slave trade, which he found still going on, tended much to injure his health; for he never spared himself, his object being to do all the good in his power.’ Indeed, writing to the King of the Sherbro in August 1810 to urge him to turn from slave trading to husbandry and commerce, Columbine had declared: ‘I have no personal advantage to derive from you taking my advice on this subject; it arises merely from a sincere wish to see Africa in a better condition than it is at present.’

Columbine’s hydrographic reputation led to some clamour for publication of surveys made by him on the African coast. The importance of a survey had been discussed by Admiralty and Colonial Office, and the former had approved the expenditure of 200 guineas to equip him with two fine Earnshaw timepieces in his capacity as ‘member of a Commission formed for surveying the coast of Africa’. Wilberforce also noted that Columbine had received some Admiralty guidance for a ‘survey of the coast in a nautical way’. However, following the decision to appoint him temporarily as Governor, the Colonial Office issued a firm directive that Columbine should remain at the seat of government and not take part in ‘exploring the coast from Cape Negro to Cape Blanco’. Hurd remarked that his old colleague had been ‘well fitted out with time-keepers and instruments’, but that nothing had reached the office. There was some evidence that eight sheets had gone astray, and that other material had been destroyed with Columbine’s papers after his death. It was also reported that the governor had had no time to complete anything more than one run down the coast, and this is supported by the records of the Hydrographical Office. At least five sounding sheets were rendered by Lieutenant Robert Bones, who took over temporarily as governor when Columbine was forced to sail for home.

His private papers in the National Maritime Museum include some accomplished pencil sketches of St Louis, Senegal. It is also clear that whilst his duties as Governor kept him largely ashore in Freetown, he used his time there to build up a series of detailed pencil sketches of that town, highlighting the improved facilities that he had encouraged. One is annotated: ‘The circular bundles of stakes which appear in this sketch are the fences of two rows of young orange trees planted during the last rains by Governor Columbine in order to make a good public walk all along the North side of Water Street. Very few of them have died during this dry season. May 1811’. This must have been one of the very last images which he made.

Michael Barritt is a historian and the author of Nelson’s Pathfinders: A Forgotten Story in the Triumph of British Sea Power