James Lovell (pirate)

James Lovell (* around 1530; † 1590) was an English captain and temporary privateer . Due to the Spanish trade embargo , some ship associations received a letter of invasion from Queen Elisabeth , which allowed them to board Spanish ships and take over their inventory. Lovell took part in such actions, where Francis Drake learned the sea trade and soon also became a captain.

Lovell undertook the first of his pirate trips in 1564–1566 to operate slave trade between West Africa and the Caribbean . The first capture of Spanish ships took place in the Cape Verde region, where the first sea battle occurred. As part of the illegal Atlantic triangular trade , black Africans were captured and transported by ship to the Caribbean to be sold as slaves to the Spanish settlers there.

These slave rides - which in a similar way u. a. Drake's cousin John Hawkins (seafarer) also undertook - but was not always successful because the settlers were strictly forbidden by the Spanish Crown to trade with the English Protestants. Lovell's first trip was a financial failure because the governor of Rio de la Hacha refused to accept the British offer.

literature

• John Hampden: Sir Francis Drake, pirate in the service of the Queen. Edition Erdmann, 2009, ISBN 9783843800754 , table of contents