Thomas and William Earle may have been the sixth most important slave merchants in Liverpool in 1790, but this was by no means their sole mercantile activity. Like their father before them, they also invested in a variety of other potential sources of profit. They were, as has been seen, part-owners in 34 slave ships which made 73 voyages between 1780 and 1804. They were also owners or part-owners of 19 other ships which between them made 59 voyages between 1783 and 1803, all non-slaving voyages with the exception of one to Africa and Jamaica carried out by the Apollo in 1792–93, her other two voyages for the Earles being slave-free. With this one exception, the ownership and management of slaving and non-slaving ships were thus separate activities.

From 1793 onwards, Britain was at war with France and shipowning once again became a hazardous occupation. Most of the non-slaving ships were very lightly armed, ships sailing to the Mediterranean usually having just two or four guns even in wartime, so it is no surprise to find that six voyages ended in capture, three or possibly four of them in the same year, 1797. But, since no vessels were wrecked, this means that the other 53 voyages were completed as planned. Since it was the brothers’ policy to insure their ships, as their father had done, it seems probable that shipowning continued to be a profitable activity for them.

Most of these profits accrued to Thomas and William themselves since, unlike the slave ships, which had a minimum of six owners, they owned all or most of these vessels, the only one with more than three co-owners being the Dispatch, a 120-ton brigantine which in the 1780s acted as house ship to the trading company of Earle, Hodgson & Drake at Leghorn and was jointly owned by all five partners: Thomas and William in Liverpool; their first cousin Willis Earle, who owned 3/16ths of the business and was resident in Leghorn; John Drake, also resident in Leghorn; and Robert Hodgson, resident in Chester.