What Did the Amistad Look Like?
In the most comprehensive recent book on the incident, the 1989 Mutiny on the Amistad, Howard Jones came to the same conclusions as had all earlier works. The schooner Amistad had been built in Baltimore under the name Friendship, sold to owners in the Spanish colony of Cuba, and renamed Amistad. At the time of the incident, the vessel was thought to be about six years old. This was a logical conclusion from the evidence at hand and would be a typical scenario for the time. Baltimore had a strong presence in the trade with Cuba, and many small coasters were built there, operated for several years under the U.S. flag, and then sold to foreign owners. Little was said about the Amistad’s size, the details of her appearance, or what became of the vessel after the court trials. Generally all modern writers had agreed with the New York Morning Herald report of 30 August 1839: She is a Baltimore built vessel of matchless model for speed, about 120 tons burden and about six years old.1 This ge
