Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1767 – 1768; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 76.

Muster roll for the ship, the Britannia , from Bristol to Barbados, Cape Fear, Barbados and to Bristol.
The Britannia sailed for Barbados in the Caribbean then went on to Cape Fear in New England, USA, back to Barbados and then returned to Bristol. Trade goods may have been sold in both colonies, or sugar and rum may have been carried from Barbados to sell in Cape Fear. The ship might have gone to Cape Fear to find a return cargo of timber from the American East Coast.

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: 1766

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers