Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 29th Sept 1763 – 29th Sept 1764; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive. Muster roll no: 140.

Muster roll for the slave ship Britannia, which sailed from Bristol in 1762 to West Africa. The ship was buffeted at sea for six weeks off the West African coast, before being escorted into port by another British ship. Reports indicate that the ship arrived in deplorableconditions, with only 9 men alive out of the 44 crew. Two ships from Liverpool helped the Britannia to sail from the coast of West Africa out into the Atlantic Ocean. They later arrived in Jamaica in the Caribbean, with about 300 enslaved Africans. Evetually, the ship returned 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: 1762

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers