Ascension was not settled until Napoleon Bonaparte was imprisoned on St Helena in 1815. The British established a naval garrison, claiming the island in the name of King George III. This was to prevent French rebels from attempting to use it as a staging post for rescuing their Emperor. By the time Napoleon died on St Helena in 1821, Ascension had become a station for food and provisions for ships involved in suppressing the slave trade around the coast of West Africa. For administrative reasons, when the British set up a garrison on Ascension, the Royal Navy declared the island as being a ship entitled HMS Ascension. The island was therefore classified as a “Stone Sloop of War of the smaller class”. Due to this designation, any children born on Ascension between 1815 and 1922 were regarded as having been born at sea.