Too Long in Slavery => name of the "3 [slave] ships"?

[madc-ccc]

Hi,

I tried to find from this great forum an answer to the following question:

**What are the 3 slave ship names mentioned by Joseph 'Culture' Hill in the song "Too Long In Slavery"?**

I found no answer - so I decided to start a new thread on that subject.

Of course, I found on the Net the lyrics of this song, for instance [there](http://lirama.net/song/60913), but I doubt the lyrics are correct, especially this portion in italic:

(...)
[Do you want to hear what's their names?]
*But they are races, Jesus,*
*Races, Jesus, of god.*
*This is my way of loving,*
and that is the destruction of poor black people.
(...)

Isn't one of them called "(Le/The) Jason"? This ship is actually listed [there](http://www.afrostyly.com/english/afro/d ... veship.htm) and indicated as having landed in Jamaica/Jamaique.

Will someone help me catching PLEEEEAAASE these 3 slave ship names?

I thank you all in advance!!!

Peace, MadC.

[Dadi Digi]

Pinta, Nena and the Santa Maria I think.

[roms77]

no theses ones are the 3 ships of Christopher Colombus not slaves ships

[Dadi Digi]

Correct, my bad although Culture do mention them in a song, guess that is what threw me off.

Check the following link regarding slave ship names.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_ship ... lave_ships

[madc-ccc]

Thanks for your answers so far!

I had checked already the Wikipedia resource, and the "slave ship" entry in particular, but none of the names listed here sounds (to my ~French~ ears at least :oD) as what Joseph Hill sings it in his song.

I'll listen more carefully tonight to the song, in various recordings (e.g. the Peel Sessions), and see if I can better understand the lyrics.

[MadC]

I have good news! )

I found that one ship among the 3 is called **S.S. Jesus** (as sung in the song), which means "Slave Ship Jesus" - and which actual name is "Jesus of Lubeck" (since it was manufactured in Germany in the city called Lubeck).

Now, isn't that **Maria of Lubeck** that Joseph Hill says right after??? It would sound pretty logical - however I could not find any reference of "Maria of Lubeck" via Google... :-/

Hey hey... I am very happy to have found that tonight... Who will help confirming the above and perhaps find the name of the 3rd ship?

Oh by the way: may these devil ships remain sunk for generations and generations in the deep waters! This may seem a bit weird, but I want to know the name of these ships... to better hate them.

[Snow Leopard]

'Maria of Lubeck' is correct I believe.

[Snow Leopard]

The actual ships in Hawkins' first slave voyage of 1562 seem to be as below:

http://www.smallislandread.com/download ... _story.doc

"Hawkins’ first slavery voyage

Members of a London syndicate, including Benjamin Gonson (Hawkins’ father-in-law and Treasurer of the Admiralty), merchants and civic leaders Sir Thomas Lodge, Sir Lionel Ducket and Sir William Winter, backed Hawkins’ first Slavery voyage. In October 1562, Hawkins, with about 100 men, left Plymouth on board three ships: the Solomon (120 tons), the Swallow (100 tons) and the Jonas (40 tons). Thomas Hampton of Plymouth was second in command.

After stopping off at Tenerife in the Canaries, they sailed to Sierra Leone on the Guinea coast where they took on board a cargo that included about 300 slaves ..."



The Jesus of Lubeck (bought by Henry 8th from the Germans) was loaned by Elizabeth I to Hawkins for his second voyage of 1564:

"His ships were the Jesus of Lubeck (700 tons), again the Solomon, the Tiger (50 tons) and the Swallow (30 tons; not the same ship that sailed previously)".



The 'SS Jesus & Maria of Lubeck' is mentioned on 1 or 2 sites, but I think it could be a red herring; SS usually means 'saints' (as in SS Peter & Paul) in this context - was 'SS' really used to signify 'slave ship'? And 'SS' later meant 'steamship' which could confuse matters.


Therefore - still not sure about the ships in the Culture song (which I have long pondered myself - I still have an old cassette of the Peel session)!

[MadC]

Thanks for your comments, Snow Leopard.

This is true that I found some occurrences of **Mary of Lubeck** via Google (while I had previously looked for _Maria_ of Lubeck without success).

Here is [one](http://www.earthcultureroots.com/freereport_02.html) of the sites that drove me to believing that "S.S." stood for Slave Ship.

Especially where it says "The flag ship was the Slave Ship (S. S.) Jesus of Lubeck."

So here we are with **S.S. Jesus** and **Mary of Lubeck**. But what could be the 3rd ship name, then???

[manfas]

In the days of sailing ships, the term SS stood for "Sailing Ship".