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West Africa Squadron
1808–1867
The West Africa Squadron was the Royal Navy force deployed after Britain abolished its slave trade in 1807 to suppress trafficking along the West African coast. Warships intercepted suspected slave vessels, liberated captives and supported the network of treaty ports and mixed commissions used to enforce anti-slave-trade measures.
The campaign lasted for decades and was costly in ships, money and lives, especially because disease made service on the coast exceptionally dangerous. Its effectiveness increased as diplomatic agreements widened British powers of search and seizure, although illegal trafficking continued and suppression remained entangled with expanding British influence in West Africa.
