HMS Meleager and Captain Perkins

 HMS Meleager and Captain Perkins

Historically the Royal Navy is often seen as the bastion of white men. Images of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are often of white men, but on the 6th September 1800 that all changed as HMS Meleager's (32-Gun Amazon class frigate) new Captain is piped aboard. Captain John "Jack" Perkins was taking his next command.

Having joined the Royal Navy in 1775, Perkins had served 25 years since he first went to sea as a pilot, he gained a reputation as a daring and adventurous officer. He must have made a name for himself as he took command of his first ship just three years after joining the Royal Navy. During the American War of Independence, Perkins in his first command of HMS Punch. His brave exploits led to the capture of 315 enemy ships in just two years. One of his greatest achievements during the war was capturing a French ship with 6 senior enemy officers onboard.

Perkins had a unique knowledge of the West Indies and its various ports, which was described "his knowledge of the different ports in the West Indies was, perhaps, seldom equalled, and never surpassed" The Naval Chronicle.

However with the War over, there was no place, and Perkins left the Royal Navy for a period, it is rumoured he may even have been a pirate for a short time. We know by 1793 Perkins was back in the Royal Navy and serving onboard HMS Dianna when he was captured by the French Navy on what is now Haiti, Perkins was engaged in a secret mission to smuggle arms onto the island to supply rebel enslaved persons so they could escape. At this point Britain and France were no longer at war, but the French still sentenced him to hang, His fellow Royal Navy officers, however, managed to secure his release and he returned to the fleet.

He was soon back in command of his own ship, HMS Spitfire, and with a return to war with the French, Perkins was back into action. He continued to command ships fighting both the French and Danish. 

By 1804 his career was coming to an end, In January 1804 he was in command of HMS Tarter when he took part in a mission to assess the slave rebellion in Haiti. 

In March 1804, Captain Perkins retired from the Royal Navy.

With his prize money, he retired to Jamacia. During his career, he had never married, though he is none to have father many children. Where he died in January 1812.

His obituary stated "he annoyed the enemy more than any other officer, by his repeated feats of gallantry, and the immense number of prizes he took" The Naval Chronicle.

http://www.blackpast.org/gah/perkins-john-jack-punch-1812
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Perkins_(Royal_Navy_officer)
http://ageofsail.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/captain-john-perkins/
https://militaryhistorynow.com/2013/04/08/captain-jack-the-first-black-skipper-in-the-royal-navy/

https://blog.royalhistsoc.org/2021/03/08/in-which-they-also-served-tracing-british-sailors-of-colour-in-the-second-world-war-royal-navy/