Although slave ships generally had to be burned after a few voyages - so that
the pestilential odors remaining from below deck would not alert government
agents - the Spanish slaver Leon did not meet her end this way. The Leon's is
probably the strangest story in the history of the slave trade.
The Leon's last voyage in 1819 was among the cruelest of slave passages. On such
ships only the smallest slaves could stand erect in the hold. Only once or twice
were they hosed down with saltwater. Rations were very small to increase the
slaver's profits. The Leon's crew was probably a happy one, anticipating the
bonus promised them - until, in mid-passage, every person aboard the ship went
blind.
The crew's blindness can be discounted, or attributed to diet deficiency or
disease, but how can the whole story be explained" The Leon must have passed
land time and time again in her strange journey, her hardened crew praying for
another ship to sight her. The slaver sailed mountainous seas; the pleas of a
blind crew were one with those of blind slaves. Gulls cried out, and waves
battered the ship. Finally, a voice different than those on board was heard, and
the Leon's crew listened intently.
Another slaver had sighted them. Their savior ship appeared, and her helmsman
hailed them. She was a French ship - the Rodeur. The Rodeur got closer. Then she
lurched away, her helmsman cursing. He veered the Rodeur toward land, suddenly
realizing the Leon's crew was blind. The men on the Leon soon heard nothing
more, and perhaps this was best. For the Rodeur's helmsman could not possibly
have helped them. He had, in fact, been seeking their assistance. Except for
himself every member of his crew was totally blind.
Every person aboard the Rodeur, including her slave cargo, had gone blind days
before, but the helmsman got his ship to a West Indies port and lived to tell
his story. Even with his account, however, the Leon was never found.
The Leon's wooden bones have never floated to shore. Some believe that she
remains a ghost ship creaking at the sides and forever bemoaning her horrific
fate, that when the ocean rages up asserting her power, even now pleading voices
aboard the Leon can be heard, damned men crying out for salvation, the Leon
sailing on, crew and slaves forever equal.