Was Jesus the name of the first slave ship?

Yes. The “Jesus of Lebuck” was the name.

The African Muslims, also known as Moors, even took Europeans as slaves for a time because they were Christians and would not convert to Islam.  Christian Europeans would in turn enslave Moors when they captured Muslims during their battles.  In fact, Christopher Columbus was aided by a Moor named Pedro Alonso Niño whose mother was a slave in Spain.  After Columbus’ findings, a European Christian named John Hawkins sought to make a profit by trading slaves.  He had a ship named “Jesus of Lubeck” which he used to transport slaves that he says he obtained “partly by the sword and partly by other means” into the Americas to trade with the Spaniards.  Others realized Hawkins discovered a black gold mine.  While Hawkins captured many of his slaves by battle with Moors, later European slave traders found it more profitable to trade goods with the Moors for their slaves.  Valentim Fernandes even noted about trading alcohol when commenting on a group with Muslims in it saying, they were “drunkards who derive great pleasure from our wine.”  This is when Hebrews who would not convert to Islam would have begun to be traded; before this many of the slaves from Africa were Moors who were taken by Christians as prisoners of war. But when rum that came from the Americas was used, along with other alcoholic beverages, to obtain slaves the Moors began to trade Hebrew prisoners for goods from the Europeans. Just as it was prophesied by Joel.

Read more about the History of slavery that is not taught, here.