Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1787 – 1788; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 217.

Muster roll for the ship, the African Queen , sailing from Africa, 1786.
The African Queen was a wood vessel belonging to Sidenham Teast and Company, shipbuilders. It returned to Bristol direct from Africa , with a cargo of tropical hardwoods. The whole voyage took almost 17 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: 1786

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers