Trouvadore was a Spanish slave ship that was shipwrecked in 1841 near East Caicos in the course of a run transporting Africans to be illegally sold to the sugarcane plantations in Cuba.
However, governors in Cuba often turned a blind eye to the trade, as they believed slave labour was integral to the profitability of the sugarcane plantations producing their most important commodity crop.
The exact route of Trouvadore is not known, but the records state that new crew members were picked up in São Tomé, a Portuguese colony off the coast of Africa that still legally traded enslaved Africans.
The authorities dispatched British soldiers to secure the crew and bring all the survivors back to Grand Turk whilst a decision was made on the Africans' future.
On Grand Turk, the ship's crew were placed under armed guard; they were eventually taken to Nassau where they were given to the custody of the Cuban consul, who took them to Cuba for prosecution.
As these 168 individuals increased the small colonial population by 7%,[1] they strongly influenced the developing society and culture, adding a level of renewed Africanization.
[1] Since 2000 Nigel Sadler, former director at the Turks and Caicos National Museum (2000–2006), has been one of the chief scholars to explore the story of Trouvadore and its legacy.
[2][3] According to a Reuters article, on 26 November 2008, marine archaeologists claimed to have found the remains of Trouvadore slave ship off the coast of the Turks and Caicos Islands.