I am reading Noel Rae's "Great Stain: Witnessing American Slavery". In it, he writes (p 55):

[T]he life of sailors on board a slaver was so harsh, and the discipline so savage, that their death rate while at sea was actually higher than that of the slaves - about twenty and thirteen percent respectively.

He proceeds to detail some practices, including crimping.

This seems provocative and counter-intuitive.

• Is it commonly accepted that the death rate was higher for sailors than slaves?

• If so, what accounts for this?