Editors’ Foreword The 2021 issue of the Trafalgar Chronicle is unique in two respects. First, this issue contains fourteen contributions by authors from six countries, reflecting the journal’s international appeal. Second, our dedicated authors conducted and submitted their work during a year in which research facilities such as libraries, archives and museums were closed due to the COvId-19 pandemic. Yet, somehow, each contributor managed to send us a well-developed, scholarly product, giving our readers new perspectives, insights and findings concerning the maritime world of the Georgian Era. These authors are to be commended for their persistence and ingenuity. The theme of the 2021 issue is Georgian Navy encounters with indigenous and enslaved populations. We chose this topic during a planning session in 2019. Little did we know that the next year’s headlines would describe political upheaval and social unrest due to racial conflicts that began in the streets of US cities in 2020. These events have generated commentary and social activism across the globe, leading to revised interpretations and opinions regarding the Western history of colonisation, exploration and slavery. Our theme turned out to be relevant to current day events in a way we had not anticipated. We received four excellent articles on our theme. The lead article, by Tom d. Fremantle, tells the story of his ancestor, Philip Gidley king, who sailed to Botany Bay with the First Fleet in 1787, becoming the first Lieutenant Governor of Norfolk Island and the third Governor of New South Wales. king presided over an English penal colony, describing, in his journal, his encounters with Maoris, some of those encounters unforgettably touching. The article is a welcomed follow-on to one about king that Mr Fremantle published in the Trafalgar Chronicle in 2017. He is a member of The 1805 Club and a frequent contributor to this journal. We have three additional articles on the theme: Retired US Navy commander and history professor, Christopher Pieczynski recounts how the British lured slaves away from their American masters’ plantations with the promise of freedom during the War of 1812. Runaway slaves faced a risky choice: any slave who could reach a Royal Navy ship would be granted freedom and passage away from American shores. A slave caught before reaching a Royal Navy ship would face harsh, physical punishment. 6
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