Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1767 – 1768; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 83.

Muster roll for the ship, the Alfred , sailing from Africa and St Vincents, in the Caribbean, 1785.
The Alfred sailed for Cape Coast and Bonny, both in West Africa. The number of slaves bought is not known, but 330 were sold at St Vincent. The whole voyage took just over 11 1/2 months.

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: 1785

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers