Ban Righ
 The Ban Righ around 1870
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The Ban Righ was a British merchant ship that was purchased by a Venezuelan Revolutionary Committee in London in 1901 to overthrow the government of Cipriano Castro .
history
The ship was built in 1870 as hull number 112 at the Fairfield shipyard by John Elder & Co. in Govan. The client was the captain James Sim from Aberdeen and other owners. The ship was completed in March 1870 and entered on May 9 of the year for the Aberdeen Steam Navigation Company in the shipping register of the home port of Aberdeen. The name "Ban Righ" is Scottish (pronounced: Benn Rih) and means "the female king", ie queen.
The British steamer BAN RIGH was searched for weapons by the authorities in London in 1901. Contemporary representation In October 1901 the Ban Righ was sold for demolition but was bought by Rodolfo de Paula on behalf of the Venezuelan banker Manuel Matos to convert it into a gunboat and bring weapons to Venezuela. On November 9, 1901, the ship was temporarily arrested during the equipment in London but released again after the Colombian consul declared it as a state ship of his government. In Antwerp , the steamer was loaded with weapons and then declared a pirate ship by the Venezuelan government Castro . In December 1901 the ship was equipped with four guns in Marigot, St Martin and then a revolutionary force was taken on board in Martinique . The regular crew including the commander , Willis, consisted of mercenaries , u. a. a French artillery - captain who oversaw the preparation of the guns on board and quasi as an artillery officer in the Ban Righ served.
The ship was renamed Libertador ("The Liberator") and reached Trinidad in January 1902, from where it operated on the Venezuelan coast until March 1902 and was hunted, among other things, by the gunboat of the Restaurador government under the command of Román Delgado Chalbaud . On February 7, 1902, the Libertador shot the government gunboat General Crespo under the leadership of General Pedro Rivero Sotero to the wreck off La Vela de Coro . Due to a defective boiler, the rebel steamer had to call into Barranquilla , Colombia , and be decommissioned in March 1903 . The cauldrons may have been sabotaged as a result of a bribe by the Venezuelan consul in Cartagena .
Apparently the steamer was bought for their navy by the Colombian government in 1907 after years of rotting in the port, as a German naval report stated.
The Ban Righ is one of the few examples in recent naval history in which a merchant ship bought abroad was converted into a warship in order to overthrow its own government in a revolution. A good 27 years later there was to be a parallel with the German steamer Falke in Venezuela - only this time Román Delgado Chalbaud tried to overthrow the Venezuelan government under Juan Vicente Gómez - the same Gómez with whom he had tried to eliminate the Ban Righ .
literature
- Captain Willis: The Cruise of the "Ban Righ": or, How I became a Pirate. Brooke Bros. & Co., London undated (1902).
- THE VENEZUALAN REVOLT. The Ban Righ, Said to be Carrying Arms for the Insurgents, at Martinique - General uprising Expected . In: New York Times v. December 25, 1901
- Bombs used in Caracas . In: New York Times v. January 12, 1902.
- THE GENERAL CRESPO SUNK. Report that the Venezualan Gunboat Was Wrecked by the Revolutionary Vessel Libertador Confirmed . In: New York Times v. February 13, 1902
- Venezualan Port Bombarded . In: New York Times v. March 4, 1902
- Libertador Flies Columbian Flag . In: New York Times v. September 25, 1902.
- GENE. GREENE ACCUSED OF REVOLUTIONARY PLOT. Went to Europe to Buy Ship and Arms for Matos, It Is Affirmed . In: New York Times v. April 2, 1905.
- Robert L. Scheina: Latin America's Wars. The Age of the Caudillo, 1791-1899 , Vol. 1, Dulles, VA 2003, p. 246 (Here “Ban Righ” misspelled as “Banright”).
- Brian Stuart McBeth: Gunboats, corruption, and claims. Foreign intervention in Venezuela, 1899-1908 , Westport, Conn (Greenwood Press) 2001, pp. 66-71. ISBN 0-313-31356-3
Web links
- The Ban Righ at Clyde Ships (English)