Description:

From ledger of ships’ muster roll, 29th September 1793 – 29th September 1794; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll for the ship, the Cleveland , from Africa, 1793.
Slave ships usually carried a large crew. With only five crew, and coming direct from Africa to Bristol, the Cleveland may have been a supply ship to slaving ships, or a wood ship; buying tropical hardwoods for the timber trade or a shipyard.

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: 1793

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers