1731: First lieutenant Robert Durand recorded the daily operations and deaths aboard the French slaving ship Diligent in a detailed personal journal.

1731: First lieutenant Robert Durand recorded the daily operations and deaths aboard the French slaving ship Diligent in a detailed personal journal. His methods of recordkeeping visually distinguished between the deaths of crew members, marked with a cross, and those of Africans, marked with a skull. This distinction extended to the treatment of the deceased, as the bodies of captives were typically thrown unceremoniously into the sea. In contrast, dead seamen were usually granted a form of Christian burial service before being consigned to a watery grave.