page_title: SS Yarmouth
section_title: The Black Star Line
hierarchical_section_title: SS Yarmouth / The Black Star Line
caption_attribution_description: English: SS Yarmouth, c1920 Postcard showing Captain Joshua Cockburn who was captain of the Yarmouth from October 1919-June 1920
context_page_description: The SS Yarmouth was a steamship notable for its part in developing Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and connecting it to Boston, Massachusetts. Later in life it had a central role as the flagship of the Marcus Garvey initiative the Black Star Line. Marcus Garvey, known as the "black Moses", was a "back to Africa" radical, and his ideas, although radical and controversial in his own time and today, still remain influential. The Black Star Line's name, a play on the White Star Line, is remembered in the flag of Ghana.
context_section_description: On 17 September 1919, the Yarmouth was bought by the Black Star Line (BSL), itself only recently incorporated in June 1919 from the North American Steamship Company, a subsidiary of Harriss, Magill, & Company. The BSL had been founded by Marcus Garvey, a proponent of Black nationalism who had several goals, one being the recolonisation of Africa by black Americans and Jamaicans, preferably by establishing a black-nation state. As a part of this effort, he established the Black Star Line with funding from a stock issue, at $5 a share from members of his United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). The name of the Black Star Line was a play on the White Star Line, the owner of the Titanic.
  Garvey was determined to employ an all-black crew for the venture, and a suitably qualified black skipper–a rare man in those days (1919)–presented himself and Garvey offered him the job. Her new master was Captain Joshua Cockburn, a British Licensed master mariner born in Nassau in the Bahamas. Cockburn had initially trained with the Royal Navy as a lighthouse tender, then worked for the UK-based Elder Dempster Lines from 1908 to 1918, which had given him significant experience with freighters plying routes between British and West African ports, especially Nigeria. Garvey claimed he was the first colored man to command a deep-sea vessel. Cockburn was retained on a "princely" $400 a month, was adept at self promotion, and had Garvey's complete trust. One of Cockburn's first tasks was to source a suitable vessel, and broker the deal.
  The BSL and other Garvey projects had already been infiltrated by agents of J. Edgar Hoover's Bureau of Investigation, one of whom was Dr Arthur Ullysses Craig. Cockburn took Craig with him to the inspect the Yarmouth. Craig was the first black electrical engineer in the USA and as qualified as any for the task.
  What is certain is that the ship was in need of extensive and drastic repairs. Her boiler crowns required renovation and her hull was almost worn out. Nevertheless, despite the contrary advice of Craig, Cockburn considered her seaworthy. Soon thereafter the BSL had to find $5,000 to repair the boiler before the maiden voyage.
  Harriss, as has been said, was more than keen to find a buyer, and Cockburn and friends were all on commission. The seller had therefore good reason to ignore the BSL's inexperience and shaky financial credentials, which had aborted previous purchasing attempts by Garvey and his followers.
  To get round the BSL's fiscal shortcomings, the Yarmouth was in effect leased by Black Star Incorporated. She was to be paid for in 10 monthly instalments, totalling $165,000, before transfer of ownership. Like all financial details concerning this organization, sums vary; some sources put it at $168,500. The Black Star could not raise the full 10 percent deposit, and the agreement was altered to an ongoing lease of $2,000 per month.
  The founding of the line and all its activities were political statements. The Negro World, a paper founded by Garvey, made a great play out of William Monroe Trotter having sailed on the Yarmouth as a waiter and cook on his way to the Paris Peace Conference. However, an indignity was forced upon him as he could not get a passport from the U.S. government for the trip. In fact, Trotter did go to Paris as a cook but he did so on the French vessel L'Ancore; this was confirmed by Trotter himself in the Boston Post of 24 July 1919, and repeated in the Baltimore Afro-American of 8 August 1919.
  The Yarmouth was unofficially rechristened as the Frederick Douglass, the intention being to change her registration papers; however, this was not followed through, and she remained registered as the Yarmouth. Despite claims being made by the Black Star that they were the owners, this was not the case and in fact, she was on lease prior to completion of the terms of sale from the North American Shipping Corporation, so no official renaming could take place. As the financial obligations of the deal were never completed, the ship was to sail for her complete history (and tenure und
caption: SS Yarmouth, and Captain Cockburn c.1920
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