History | |
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Name | HMS Wasp |
Builder | Portsmouth Dockyard [M/Shipwright Peirson Lock] |
Launched | 1749 |
Captured | Sold 1781 |
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Name | Polly |
Acquired | 1781 |
Renamed | Mentor (1784) |
Captured | c. December 1795 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Tons burthen | 136,[2] or 1403⁄94, or 14037⁄94or 150[3] (bm) |
Length |
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Beam | 20 ft 8 in (6.3 m) |
Depth of hold | 9 ft 2 in (2.8 m) |
Complement | 50 (Royal Navy) |
Armament |
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Mentor was the former HMS Wasp. The British Royal Navy sold Wasp in 1781 and she became the mercantile Polly, which traded with Africa. In 1784 Polly became the slave ship Mentor. Mentor made eight full voyages in the triangular trade in enslaved people. She carried captives from The Gambia to the West Indies. French privateers captured her in late 1795 as she was on her way from West Africa to the West Indies on her ninth voyage.