Mortality and Voyage Length in the Middle Passage Revisited

British slave traders were early and rapid adopters of the new technique of sheathing ships' hulls with copper. From the 1780s this innovation increased sailing speeds of British slave ships by about a sixth, prolonged the ships' lives by at least a half, and reduced the death rates of slaves on the middle passage by about half. It was, above all, the fall in death rates, and possibly the improved condition of surviving slaves, that made the investment so compelling. Copper sheathing may have paid for itself in a single voyage, even though it was usually good for several. By the 1790s few slave ships, even if making only a single voyage, were uncoppered. These results confirm that copper sheathing was one of the major improvements in shipping productivity before the use of iron and steam in the mid-nineteenth century.

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“…Haines et al, ‘Mortality and voyage length’, p. 506. The Davenport papers include accounts for 40 voyages made by 15 ships between 1770 and 1776.…”

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confidence: 99%

Copper sheathing and the British slave trade

Solar

Rönnbäck

2014

The Economic History Review

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“…5 The sample includes voyages with years of departure spanning 1622 to 1864, though almost all observations come from the hundred-year period from 1711 to 1810. Summary statistics are comparable to the sample of Haines, McDonald, and Shlomowitz (2001). Their sample has an average tonnage of 228.9 shipping tons (compared to 244 in the completely observed sample), an average mortality rate of 11 percent (11.9 percent), a slave/shipping ton ratio of 1.53 (1.48), and a Middle Passage duration of 64 days (73.6).…”

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confidence: 89%

Revealing the Relationship Between Ship Crowding and Slave Mortality

Duquette¹

2014

J. Econ. Hist.

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“…Our sources also suffer a well‐documented limitation in not making clear when deaths occurred during the voyage (Grubb ; McDonald & Shlomowitz ; Haines et al ). Maxwell‐Stewart and Kippen () examine this for later period ships for which surgeons' journals have survived, but with rare exceptions, this information is not available prior to 1818.…”

Section: Data Sources and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other studies that assess mortality in slave, convict, labourer, and immigrant voyages employ a range of multivariate techniques to account for the range of possible independent variables that may affect mortality rates. These include ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, logistic regression, and analysis of variance (Cohn ; Eltis ; Grubb ; McDonald & Shlomowitz ; McDonald & Shlomowitz ; Haines et al ; Duquette ). In order to analyse the mortality rate aboard convict ships in the extended periods, we use OLS regression, results of which are reported in Table .…”

Section: The Extended Period (1787–1849)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Convict Transportation to New South Wales, 1787–1849: Mortality Rates Reconsidered

2017

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Previous research into Australian convict transportation has concluded that a significant downturn in mortality rates occurred with the appointment of naval surgeons as superintendents in 1815. Statistical analysis of convict ships sent to New South Wales between 1787 and 1849 shows a more significant downturn occurred in 1800, following the introduction of closer supervision of ships' surgeons. The contracting system established by the Navy Board in 1786 for the transportation of convicts to New South Wales could be made to work as long as government maintained an effective system of inspection and supervision.

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Mortality and Voyage Length in the Middle Passage Revisited

Cited by 9 publications

References 8 publications

Copper sheathing and the British slave trade

Copper sheathing and the British slave trade

Revealing the Relationship Between Ship Crowding and Slave Mortality

Convict Transportation to New South Wales, 1787–1849: Mortality Rates Reconsidered

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