Restraints from the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

Good Morning everybody,

here are some photos from the National Maritime Museum in London. Really nice and worth the trip. I dare say.
Photos were taken with my phone, I apologize for the poor quality. (Plus, I had to take them when the guard was looking the other way).

Cheers,
Nils

That a number of them designated to have been used in the "slave trade" were never actually used for that. Like the RCS Darby, the darby neck collar, and the single plug leg iron they has erroneously labelled as being for the "idnetification" of slaves.

Also, the two neck collars joined by chain and fitted with simple hook closures were used for farm animals, not slaves.

Steve Santini

Good Morning everybody,

here are some photos from the National Maritime Museum in London. Really nice and worth the trip. I dare say.
Photos were taken with my phone, I apologize for the poor quality. (Plus, I had to take them when the guard was looking the other way).

Cheers,
Nils

Click to expand...

Hi Nils, thank you for taking the time to post these photos, I didn't even know they place existed but now, thanks to you, I know something of what is inside, that is of interest to me.

Ian

Good Morning everybody,

here are some photos from the National Maritime Museum in London. Really nice and worth the trip. I dare say.
Photos were taken with my phone, I apologize for the poor quality. (Plus, I had to take them when the guard was looking the other way).

Cheers,
Nils

Click to expand...

Hi Nils,

thank you very much for posting the pictures! Which text is engraved in the plug handcuff, I cannot quite make it out from the pic.

Best wishes,

Michael

Good Morning everybody,

here are some photos from the National Maritime Museum in London. Really nice and worth the trip. I dare say.
Photos were taken with my phone, I apologize for the poor quality. (Plus, I had to take them when the guard was looking the other way).

Cheers,
Nils

Click to expand...

I'll probably go with Steve on his evaluation of the collars, since there is no locking mechanism and the type is often found in farm, i.e. cow shackles. I wouldn't rule out the museum's theory entirely, though. They could be bent shut, or if the wearer's wrists are bound, it wouldn't matter much. The size would be about right for collars. I'm not sure I could think of a use for that kind of collar for a farm animal.

The Hiatt collar is probably the most interesting exhibit. The plug cuff reads: "S - Bossamer" or something, and "Layton 1745", if I remember correctly. It is in remarkably good condition.

This was the only museum where I encountered some types of restraints. Most museums don't seem to deem this darker part of history worthy of exhibit. But then I didn't check the London history museum.

Good Morning everybody,

here are some photos from the National Maritime Museum in London. Really nice and worth the trip. I dare say.
Photos were taken with my phone, I apologize for the poor quality. (Plus, I had to take them when the guard was looking the other way).

Cheers,
Nils

Click to expand...

Nice Darby collar.
Plug cuff is nice too but I'm not sure the key is original. The key appears to have a hollow end similar to the Boer War Plug 8 key the prongs on the key look too close together for the holes on the plug - it may just be the photo. I assume 1746 is just a number not a date?? The name would be worth researching if we can make it out. S - Bosa.....

thanks Nils
Paul

Good Morning everybody,

here are some photos from the National Maritime Museum in London. Really nice and worth the trip. I dare say.
Photos were taken with my phone, I apologize for the poor quality. (Plus, I had to take them when the guard was looking the other way).

Cheers,
Nils

Click to expand...

http://www.understandingslavery.com/ind ... 4&Itemid=2

A google of Layton 1746 found other photos of the cuff.
paul

Good Morning everybody,

here are some photos from the National Maritime Museum in London. Really nice and worth the trip. I dare say.
Photos were taken with my phone, I apologize for the poor quality. (Plus, I had to take them when the guard was looking the other way).

Cheers,
Nils

Click to expand...

It seems highly likely that Samuel Bosanquet was the owner of the cuff and what it held.

http://thepeerage.com/p22345.htm#i223441
There is a Samuel Bosanquet born 1700 at Leyton, Essex, England listed in the Peerage (see above).
The spelling of Leyton/Layton in not important.

The surname appears in Directors of the East India Company.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India ... _directors

The link between the slave trade and East India Company can be argued, but this family seems to at least own slaves.

[url=http://india_resource.tripod.com/eastindia.html]http://india_resource.tripod.com/eastindia.html[/url]
quote
" And finally, (and perhaps, most significantly), as Veronica Murphy reports in 'Europeans and the Textile Trade' (Arts of India 1550-1900), "although the East India Company was not itself engaged in the transatlantic slave trade, the link was very close and highly profitable." In fact, in the 18th century, the British dominated the Atlantic slave trade transporting more slaves than all the other European powers combined. In 1853, Henry Carey - author of 'The Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign' wrote: "It (the British System) is the most gigantic system of slavery the world has yet seen, and therefore it is that freedom gradually disappears from every country over which England is enabled to gain control." The Atlantic slave trade was hence, a vital contributor to the financial strength of the East Indian Trading Companies. "

Paul

Good Morning everybody,

here are some photos from the National Maritime Museum in London. Really nice and worth the trip. I dare say.
Photos were taken with my phone, I apologize for the poor quality. (Plus, I had to take them when the guard was looking the other way).

Cheers,
Nils

Click to expand...

Paul

I had seen the pictures you found before, but I never knew where the cuff was located. So it is good to make the connection.

The 1746 date is fifty years or so earlier than Griffin. I wonder who made the thing.
Does anyone know of an older cuff with the standard plug mechanism?

Joe

Good Morning everybody,

here are some photos from the National Maritime Museum in London. Really nice and worth the trip. I dare say.
Photos were taken with my phone, I apologize for the poor quality. (Plus, I had to take them when the guard was looking the other way).

Cheers,
Nils

Click to expand...

Hello,

> This was the only museum where I encountered some types of restraints. Most museums don't seem to deem this darker part of history worthy of exhibit.
> But then I didn't check the London history museum.

I have been in the London science museum and in the Tower of London. In the science museum i have seen a pair of non adjustable Darbys (key looks different to Keys of Hiatt), a plug eight and a thumb screw. They are all located to other locks and some weapons, but the Bramah lock is at a different place. In the Tower of London i have seen massive leg irons (to be hammered shut) and a scavenger's daughter, both located in the white tower.

Best regards
Andy-58