Description:

Ships muster rolls from 29th Sept 1763 – 29th Sept 1764; Society of Merchant Venturers archive. Muster roll no: 80.

Muster roll for the Gambia, a slave ship which sailed from Bristol in 1760. The ship arrived in West Africa where 250 enslaved Africans were purchased before sailing to Jamaica in the Caribbean, where the slaves were sold. The ship then sailed on, and was reported lost coming through the Windwardpassage, but the master and crew got to Havana (in Cuba) in boats and then found their way to South Carolina, USA.

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: 1760

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers