Sunken Treasure of Hell GateNovember 23, 1780

Sir Charles Pole ignores his pilot, a local slave named Bill and

sails east through Hell Gate

Hussar was swept onto Pot Rock and began sinking. Pole was unable to run her aground and she sank in 90 feet of water.

Monday, January 14, 2013

HuntsPoint

Last Voyage...

HMS Hussar reportedly carries $2-4 million in gold to pay British troops during the Revolution

Heading to safety at Gardiners Bay

The British immediately denied there was any gold aboard the ship

Monday, January 14, 2013

Salvaging the H.M.S. HussarIn 1780 a British ship sank near Hunt’s Point loaded with gold..

King George III on a golden

Guinea used to pay soldiers.

Area where the Hussar apparently went down

Monday, January 14, 2013

“We silenced British cannon fire in 1776 and we donʼt want to hear it again in Central Park,” the New York Police Department said in a statement

Gunpowder in a cannon from HMS Hussardiscovered in 2013

Monday, January 14, 2013

Fatal route of the Hussar

Trying to save the Hussar.

“A tall, intelligent Negro, belonging to the Hunt family of the Bronx.”

Black Jacks guided ships through New York harbor.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Deceptively serene the waters of Hell

Gate were treacherous. On

Wards Island Negro Point and Negro Point

Bluff may hearken back to the days when local slaves

piloted ships safely past submerged

hazards.

1885 demolition of Pot Rock in Hell GateMonday, January 14, 2013

As the slave of a naval captain, Olaudah Equiano was trained in seamanship and traveled extensively with his master. He was sold to Robert King, a Quaker merchant from Philadelphia who traded in the Caribbean. King enabled Equiano to buy his freedom, which he achieved by his early twenties. Equiano travelled to London and became involved in the abolitionist movement, which had been particularly strong amongst Quakers.

Black Jacks are slaves and freemen trained as sailors, pilots and at times captains

(c. 1745 – 31 March 1797)

Many royal naval vessels were piloted by blacks -- some of them runaways, other enslaved to loyalist masters, and still others pressed into service.

The Newport Historical Society

Although Black seamen performed a range of duties,

usually the most menial ones, they were particularly valued

as pilots.

Monday, January 14, 2013

The Hunts are among the earliest English settlers in the Bronx

A cannonball, cutlass and other Revolutionary war items.

Relics found in the ruins of the Hunt Mansion.

British and American forces in action around NYC during the revolution

Hunt mansion

Monday, January 14, 2013

1790 slave census shows the Hunt’s and other local families are major owners.

Hunt-Leggett slave cemetery -Hunts Point

Slavery was legal in New York until 1827.

Monday, January 14, 2013