An incredibly rare and important logbook from the slave schooner Juverna , which sa iled between Liverpool, West

African and Surinam during 1804-1805, will be sold by Bonhams just days before the 200th anniversary since the abolition of slavery . The sale of Marine Works of Art and Scientific Instruments will be held on Mar ch 21st, 2007, in Knightsbridge, London. The detailed daily logbook, written in the hand of Master Robert Lewis, records the winds, courses, weather conditions as well as general observations on a clas sic 'Triangular Trade' slaving expedition from England less than two years befor e the abolition of slavery and in the midst of the Napoleonic War. It is expecte d to fetch in 2,000-3,000. On July 29th 1804, the newly built 82 ton schooner Juverna , commanded of Master Ro bert Lewis, left Liverpool with a cargo of salt bound for the Bight of Benin on the first leg of a voyage in the notorious Triangular Trade . At the height of the Napoleonic War, with Nelson blockading the French Fleet, sh e made an uneventful passage south to West Africa; apart from the loss of one se aman overboard, anchoring off Old Calibar after 48 days, just astern of her owne r s mother ship Intrepid . At Calibar and the Cameroon River, over a period of 14 weeks, Juverna took on boar d a mixed male/female cargo of 110 slaves, 108 of which survived to sail for the Americas in late December. She was accompanied for safety by the much larger Int repid , herself laden with a human cargo of 343 souls. This small fleet sailed across the Atlantic to Paramaribo in Surinam (Dutch Guia na), with a short stop on Princes Island to replenish supplies and to allow the slaves ashore to wash. Of the human cargo on board Juverna , 19 losses were reporte d, while 21 souls perished on Intrepid mostly from dysentery. At Surinam, the cargo was quickly disposed of. The ship s doctor, who had borne th e brunt of the care of the human cargo during the voyage, soon deserted, followe d by a further nine seamen, a significant amount from a crew only numbering 16 i n total. As the slaves went ashore, fee and cotton, all marked June 19th, 1805, Juverna due to the possibility of they were rapidly replaced by her return cargo of cof with the monogram of her owner, Henry Clarke, and on departed for Liverpool in convoy with several other ships a French squadron cruising off the coast.

The re-crossing of the Atlantic was uneventful until Juverna was chased and finall y hove-to by HMS Leander , 50 guns, who after examining her papers impressed one of her already diminished crew. Another frigate, HMS Aeolius boarded her again later , but left the crew alone and Juverna finally returned safely to her home port on July 23rd. Robert Lewis did not make another slave voyage, but Juverna herself, with a new ma ster left Liverpool again in November, bound again for West Africa. In a sobering reflection of the troubled times, around January 26th 1806, off th e West African coast and in company with five other ships (presumably all on the same errand) she was captured by a French squadron led by the Regulus and disappe ars from the records, all the crews being transferred to the Active of London, who landed them safely at Waterford.