ABSTRACT
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Royal Navy had, among many other imperial missions, to complete a great humanitarian task in the Western Indian Ocean: the repression of the slave trade on the east African coast. This chapter will demonstrate how complex and difficult the task of the navy officers was. First of all, we will see that the Indian Ocean slave trade had nothing to do with what British sailors and officers had experienced before in the Atlantic. Secondly, we will point that there was a great gap between the official political discourse in Britain and the means at the disposals of the men on the spot even though anti-slavery operations at sea made the pride of the British public opinion and government officials at home. Finally, this chapter will demonstrate that far from being superior to native vessels engaged in the slave trade, the Royal Navy ships were, much like its officers, not adapted to patrols these seas whereas dhows fitted perfectly in their natural environment and could easily evade the control which a foreign imperial power tried to impose upon them.
