The Royal Navy establishes the West Africa Squadron (or Preventative Squadron) at substantial expense in 1808 as the Slave Trade Act of 1807 of January 22, 1807, takes effect on March 1, abolishing slavery in all of the the United Kingdom 's colonies.

The squadron's task is to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa.

With a home base at Portsmouth, it begins with two small ships, the thirty-two-gun fifth-rate frigate HMS Solebay and the Cruizer-class brig-sloop HMS Derwent.

At the height of its operations, the squadron will employ a sixth of the Royal Navy fleet and marines.

Between 1808 and 1860 the West Africa Squadron will capture sixteen hundred slave ships and free one hundred and fifty thousand enslaved Africans.