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Muster roll

Muster roll

Description:

From ships’ muster roll book, September 1773 – September 1774; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 73.
Muster roll for the ship The Maria , from Africa and Tobago, 1771.
Nothing is known about the ship’s slaving activities at Old Calabar, and how many slaves were bought and sold.
17 of the crew died: ships might spend 8 months on the coast of West Africa buying slaves, and the crew was exposed to African diseases, against which they had no real immunity.

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: 1771

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers

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