The "Wanderer" was built in Setauket, New York as a pleasure boat, but it was acquired by Southerners who opposed the prohibition on the Atlantic slave trade. They had it converted in the Congo and Angola to carry slaves, and the captain purchased more than 500 to take to the US. After a six-week voyage in which more than 100 slaves died, on November 28, 1858, "The Wanderer" anchored near the southern portion of Jekyll Island. Its crew took 409 to 465 enslaved Africans ashore, smuggling them to the mainland. News of the slave ship set off a wave of outrage. The federal government's effort to prosecute the conspirators was unsuccessful.