Description:

Ships’ muster rolls, from 29th September 1770 – 29th September 1771; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 182.

Muster roll for the slave ship, the Indian Queen. The ship left Bristol and sailed to Old Calabar (now Nigeria) in West Africa. At Old Calabar, 18 crew members ran away and 27 died. The ship carried 178 slaves across to the island of Jamaica in the Caribbean, where 15 new crew members were enlisted for the voyage back to Bristol.

The muster roll is a list of all crew signed on for all or part of a voyage, which was used to calculate the money each man should pay to the Sailors’ Hospital Fund (insurance).

The Society of Merchant Venturers is a Bristol-based organisation, which was formed in 1552 as an elite body of merchants involved in overseas trade. The Society still exists today.

Date: 1769 - 1771

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers