Description:

Ships’ muster rolls from 1748 – 1749; Society of Merchant Venturers’ archive.
Muster roll no: 184.

Muster roll for the ship, the Success, sailing from Africa and St Christophers on St Kitts, in the Caribbean, 1749.
The Success sailed to the Bight of Benin in Africa with instructions to buy 320 slaves. The number actually bought there and sold at St Kitts is not known.

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: 1749

Copyright: Copyright The Society of Merchant Venturers