Description:

From ships’ muster roll book, 29th September 1772 – 29th September 1773; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive. Muster roll no: 101.
Muster roll for the ship, the Polly , from Jamaica, 1772.
Four of the crew deserted in the Caribbean, and four more were taken on for the voyage home.

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: 1772

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers