Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1788 – 1789; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 100.

Muster roll for the ship, the Alfred , sailing for Africa and St Vincent, 1787.
The Alfred sailed for Africa with orders to buy 400 or 420 slaves. It is not known how many slaves were bought and sold at St Vincent, in the Caribbean.

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: 1787

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers