Capture of the brig Brillante
1832 naval operation
The Capture of the brig Brillante occurred around 1832 and was considered a significant feat in the Blockade of Africa. Brillante was a slave ship that the Royal Navy succeeded in capturing after two failed attempts. The brig had a crew of sixty men and was armed with ten guns. Brillante was under the command of an English-born captain named Homans when she was seized. Homans was an experienced slaver who in ten cruises had landed 5,000 slaves on the coasts of Brazil and Cuba.
Brillante reportedly fought at least two battles against the British anti-slavery patrols. She allegedly forced the crew of one British cruiser to abandon ship after a bloody action and on a different occasion, she repulsed boats from a Royal Navy sloop-of-war.
Finally, four navy vessels trapped Brillante by surrounding her. Just before his capture, Captain Homans murdered around 600 slaves by ordering that their hands be tied to the ship's anchor and that they be thrown over the side. The Britons who captured the ship arrived just after the incident and took control without resistance.
“Capture of the brig Brillante” enters the record as 1832 naval operation. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Capture, brig and Brillante can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Capture of the brig Brillante” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Capture, brig and Brillante provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5037072. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1832.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Capture of the brig Brillante”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Capture of the brig Brillante primary sources, Capture of the brig Brillante archive and Capture research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Capture of the brig Brillante”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Capture of the brig Brillante” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.