CHAPTER 13
Occupations: The Merchant Navy
As a nation surrounded by the sea, Britons have a long association with maritime professions, perhaps no more so than the Merchant Navy. Fortunately, a vast array of material survives that allows us to trace the movements of our ancestors around the world, and this chapter shows you all the steps you’ll need to take, as well as highlighting some of the potential pitfalls involved.
The Merchant Navy was a private organization that was not regulated by government until the nineteenth century. In 1835 merchant shipping became the responsibility of the Register Office of Merchant Shipping (RGSS), regulated by the Board of Trade. It is from this date that the major collections of Merchant Navy records begin, especially for individual seamen. Prior to that date some records do exist, but locating an individual is significantly harder. The RGSS, later known as the Registry of Shipping and Seamen (RSS), has been the administering body for the Merchant Navy since 1835. It is currently based in Cardiff and still retains the most recent Merchant Navy records (since 1996).
Records for individuals who served in the Merchant Navy are found in a number of archives. Again, the majority are held at The National Archives. However, there are also important collections in the Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London, and the Guildhall Library of London and some local repositories. The British Library holds the collection of the East India Company’s merchant marine. The Memorial University of Canada also holds information that may be of relevance. Additionally, the General Record Office has indexes recording births, marriages and deaths of British nationals on British ships.
Service Records Prior to 1835
The Merchant Navy, like the Royal Navy, distinguished between masters and captains, who were responsible for the entire ship, and ordinary seamen, who worked on the ships. Until 1835 finding records for ordinary seamen is a complex task with little guarantee of success. Indeed, up until 1747 there was no requirement for ships’ masters to keep any muster rolls or crew lists. Surviving records to that date simply detail the owner of the ship and its master.
‘Until 1835 finding records for ordinary seamen is complex – up until 1747 masters didn’t have to keep crew lists.’
Crew Lists
Crew lists were only kept in a small minority of cases prior to 1747, when ships were involved in maritime disputes. Records of these maritime disputes may record crew lists, although this was not always the case. These records are now held at The National Archives, in series HCA (High Court of Admiralty) and DEL (Records of the High Court of Delegates). Such lists as do survive in these series are not indexed and the chances of locating your ancestor are rather limited.
In 1747 it became a requirement for all masters or owners of merchant ships to record the individuals employed on their ships on various muster rolls and crew lists. Along with the seaman or officer’s name they would usually record home residence, name of last ship served on and the date the sailor was engaged on and discharged from the ship. These are now held in The National Archives series BT 98. Unfortunately, the survival rate of these lists is not complete. The lists would be stored at the arrival or departure port of the ship and until 1800 lists only survive for Dartmouth, Liverpool and Shields (now North and South Shields). The latter is the only port that has lists starting from 1747. The number of lists increases greatly after 1800. However, they are arranged annually by name of port and there are currently no indexes. Hence, it is a very lengthy task to search for an individual unless you are aware of the relevant port and the ship on which they sailed.
Other than crew lists, there are some alternative sources that may give information about seamen in this period.
• The Trinity House petitions: The Corporation of Trinity House was formed in the sixteenth century as a guild to help mariners and their families in times of poverty or sickness through charitable funds. By the nineteenth century the organization was supporting many mariners through almshouses or awarding pensions. Mariners or their families had to submit petitions in order to receive assistance from Trinity House. These petitions survive from 1787 to 1854 and are stored at the Guildhall Library. They contain useful genealogical information and also career service details. The Society of Genealogists has copies of these petitions, numbering around 8,000, and an index to these records can be searched on the Origins website, at www.origins.net. The Guildhall Library also has registers of almspeople and out-pensioners being assisted by Trinity House, ranging from 1729 to 1946.
• Apprenticeship records: The system of apprenticeship was widespread amongst numerous trades and professions from the seventeenth century onwards, merchant shipping being no exception. Some pauper boys were forcibly indentured to serve as apprentices on ships by parishes from 1704 onwards. If records survive for this practice they will be held with local record offices. Taxes were placed on the entire apprenticeship system for each type of profession from 1710 to 1811. These records are held in The National Archives series IR 1 and there are indexes for boys (from 1710 to 1764) and masters from (1710 to 1762).
• The Marine Society: This society, founded in 1756 and still in existence today, was another charitable organization training individuals for employment in the Merchant or Royal Navy. Their records can now be found at the National Maritime Museum. The records include registers of boys who were sent to sea from the Society from 1756 to 1958. Some of these registers may be indexed and contain genealogical information such as the name of the parents. There are separate registers for adult males who came through the Society, although these are not indexed.
USEFUL INFO
• Apprenticeship records for those indentured to fishermen in the south east can be found in HCA 30/897, for the years 1639 to 1664.
• BT 167 has a register of apprentices for the port of Colchester for 1704 to 1757 and 1804 to 1844.
• BT 150 has an index for apprentices between 1824 and 1953 although only a limited number of actual indenture records survive.
Merchant Navy Records From 1835
The bulk of the records for merchant seamen start from this period. In 1835 the Merchant Shipping Act stipulated that all crew lists should be stored centrally. Hence a large amount of documentation was produced to comply with this regulation. These include registers of seamen (compiled from the crew lists with the aim of providing additional personnel for the Royal Navy in times of conflict), officers’ certificates and more modern crew lists and apprenticeship records.
Apprenticeship Records, 1824–1953
Document collections for the more modern apprenticeship records begin in 1824 due to the passing of the Merchant Seamen Act of 1823. The Act made it compulsory for all ships over a certain tonnage to include indentured apprentices. Lists of indentured apprentices would be made by local officials and, after 1835, these lists would be sent to the central authorities in London. After 1849 these apprenticeships became voluntary and started to be used as a means of training officers. As mentioned above, indexes for these records survive in BT 150, although only a sample survives for the actual records. Some local registers also survive and can be found in the CUST series at The National Archives.
Crew Lists and Agreements
Along with the many other regulations brought in with the Merchant Shipping Act of 1835 was a new method of keeping crew lists. From 1835 to 1860 the records are held at The National Archives in series BT 98. Records up to 1857 are arranged by port and then alphabetically by ship’s name. Between 1857 and 1860 the lists are organized by the official ship number. Each seaman serving on the ship is noted in these lists as written agreement had to be sought from these seamen about conditions of service. Each individual’s entry should include the name, birth details, rank (known as quality), previous ship and date of joining and leaving the current ship. However, there are no indexes from 1835 to 1857 and it is only feasible to view these records by finding out ship details from seamen’s registers (see below).
USEFUL INFO
The official ship number can be found by consulting Lloyd’s Register of Shipping or the Mercantile Navy List.
The later crew lists (from 1861 to 1976) are found in a number of archives, and the survival rate is generally much higher then for the earlier ones.
• The National Archives: They have a random 10 per cent sample of crew lists from 1861 to 1938 and then from 1951 to 1972. They can be found in a few different series: BT 99, BT 100, BT 144 and BT 165. The crew lists during the Second World War are held separately, in BT 381, BT 380 and BT 387. There is a card index to all ships’ logbooks and crew lists received by the RGSS between 1939 and 1950 in BT 385. The index is alphabetically arranged by ship name and is the simplest way of ascertaining where records of the ship of interest will be found. After 1972 only a 2 per cent sample has been retained. The remainder have been destroyed up to 1994, apart from the lists retained by the National Maritime Museum (see below). All lists after 1994 are still with the RSS in Cardiff.
• The National Maritime Museum: The Museum holds the remaining 90 per cent of the crew lists for the years 1861 and 1862. It also has the remainder for every year ending in 5 from 1865 onwards (apart from 1945). The Museum also holds card indexes to the ships’ crew lists similar to those found at The National Archives for its collections.
• Local Archives and County Record Offices: Certain local repositories may also store crew lists for the years 1863 to 1913 for their local ports. The website www.crewlist.org.uk can provide further details regarding which lists such archives may store.
• The University of Newfoundland, Canada: The Maritime History Group in the University of Newfoundland, Canada, also retains significant holdings relating to crew lists and agreements. The Group has the remaining crew lists not found elsewhere for the years 1863 to 1938 and then from 1951 to 1976. The Group has also produced three indexes by ship number for their earlier collection:
An index for its crew lists from 1863 to 1913
An index for its crew lists from 1913 to 1938
An index of crew lists deposited with local repositories and archives All three indexes can be found at the Guildhall Library, and The National Archives also has a copy of the first index.
Service Records of Merchant Navy Personnel
As mentioned above, the Merchant Navy, like the Royal Navy, distinguished between officer personnel and ordinary seamen. As such there are different records depending on which rank your ancestor held.
Officers’ Service Records
A specific system of registering officers’ service in the Merchant Navy was begun in 1845. Masters and mates of ships were recognized as the officer class of the Merchant Navy. If your ancestor served before this time there is no guarantee of finding any relevant documentation; the best route is to trace any vessels that he may have served on, as records for these vessels may mention your ancestor. From 1854 you may find information in any of the sources here.
If you can’t find information on an ancestor who you suspect was a captain, master or mate, then it is worth looking in the records listed below for ordinary seamen, particularly in the period after 1913.
1.
Alphabetical Register of Masters
From 1845 to 1854 the RGSS produced such a register by using the crew lists. They are now held in BT 115.
2.
Other sources of offificers’ service information
• BT 336 contains a register of changes of ships’ masters between 1894 and 1948, arranged by ship number.
• The National Maritime Museum keeps records of the applications for certificates until 1928. These would often include details of service up to the date of application. No applications survive after that date.
• Further information can be found in Lloyd’s Captains’ Registers post 1913. Extra information for masters was extracted from the record of certificates issued to foreign-going masters and sent to Lloyd’s. Lloyd’s began collecting this information from 1869 in manuscript form and these registers can be used to supplement information found in records after 1913.
3.
Certificates of competency and service, 1845–1969
A voluntary examination system was introduced by the Board of Trade in 1845 for men serving on foreign-serving ships. Records of those passing the exams are held in BT 143/1 (this piece also includes a name index) and BT 6/218–219. Lloyd’s Register of Shipping’s appendix contains an alphabetical list of those passing such exams during these years. The London Gazette (available online) also published the names of those men passing such exams.
The system was made compulsory in 1850 and officers were only entitled to certificates if they passed the exams (therefore showing themselves to be competent) or could prove a long period of service with the Navy. Many registers were compiled recording the issuing of certificates that are now held at The National Archives. These registers should include name, date and place of birth, the date the certificate was issued and rank of the individual. Details of which ships the individual served on are also included until 1888. The certificates themselves are in series BT 122 to BT 126 (BT 128 has colonial certificates). An index for them can be found in BT 127.
From the late nineteenth century onwards there were separate series:
• Engineer certificates are held in BT 139–142 (colonial registers in BT 140) from 1862 onwards. The indexes can be found in BT 141.
• Certificates for skippers and mates of fishing vessels are in BT 129 and BT 130 from 1882 onwards, with the index in BT 138.
• Certificates for cooks were introduced in 1908 and indexes to them are in BT 319 for 1913 to 1956. The National Maritime Museum holds the actual registers for 1915 to 1958.
From 1910 the series’ indexes were combined to form one single index to all the different types of certificates issued. It is now held in BT 352.
Records of Seamen’s Service
Records began to be kept for serving seamen of the Merchant Navy from 1835 onwards. However, this is not a continuous sequence as there were times when no records were kept even after that date. As mentioned, the process of registration was begun in 1835 in order to have a reserve force for the Royal Navy in times of conflict. In total there are five registers of seamen that are open to members of the public. They start in 1835 and the last series ends in 1972 although there are gaps in those dates. Additionally, there is a sixth series from 1973 but it is currently held by the RSS in Cardiff and only available to either the individual or, in cases of decease, the next of kin. The RSS can be contacted at the following address:
Registry of Shipping and Seamen
Maritime and Coastguard Agency
Anchor Court
Keen Road
Cardiff
CF24 5JW
The first three series were kept from 1835 to 1857, compiled from crew lists as required by the Merchant Shipping Act of 1835.
1.
First Register of Seamen, 1835–36
This series can be found in The National Archives series BT 120. The records are organized alphabetically and provide age and birth details, which ship the individual was serving on and his status.
2.
Second Register of Seamen, 1835–44
These records can be found in BT 112. The series is further divided into two parts. Part 1 is from 1835 to February 1840, the sub-series being arranged alphabetically by the first two letters of the seaman’s surname (there is an index to this part in BT 119/1). Part 2 is from December 1841 to 1844 and is arranged entirely alphabetically. There appears to be a gap from March 1840 to November 1841.
The first gap in the series appeared in 1845 when the registration system was replaced by a ticketing system for seamen who were leaving the country. This system lasted until 1853 and each individual had to have a register ticket upon departure. As these tickets were then retained by individual seamen most have not survived. However, there is an alphabetical index to seamen in BT 114. The index provides their place of birth, and the ticket numbers refer to the ticket registers in series BT 113. This latter series provides additional details of each seaman including physical description and career details.
3.
Third Register of Seamen, 1853–57
In 1853 the ticket system was replaced by a new series of registers which ran till 1857. These records can be found in BT 116, men being listed alphabetically, and birth and career details are given for each seaman.
Between 1857 and 1913 there was no system of registering individual seamen as the authorities believed the crew lists were sufficient information. During this period it is only possible to research a merchant seaman if the name of a ship is also known in order to access the crew lists.
The original cards of the Fourth Register of Seamen are stored at Southampton. As many of these cards contain photographs it may be worthwhile viewing these originals:
Southampton City Archive
Southampton City Council
South Block Basement
Civic Centre
Southampton SO14 7LY
Tel +44 (0)23 8083 2251
www.southampton.gov.uk/s-leisure/artsheritage/history/archives/
4.
Fourth Register of Seamen, 1913–41
This series, also referred to as the Central Indexed Register, contains records of seamen going up to 1941 and includes approximately 1.25 million cards. Unfortunately, the cards for 1913 to 1918 were destroyed. The originals of the surviving cards are currently stored at Southampton Archives Office. However, The National Archives has microfilm copies of the cards in a variety of series, some organized numerically and others alphabetically:
• BT 351 This series is an index to all seamen awarded the Mercantile Marine Award for participating during the First World War. As such, they can provide some information about seamen during 1914–18, the period where no other cards survive.
• BT 350 This series contains the cards originally found in RSS card series CR 10. It is an index begun in 1918 to the cards from 1918 to 1921 and may contain photographs of the seamen.
• BT 349 The series stores the card series originally known as CR 1. The records are arranged alphabetically by surname, provide birth details, a career summary and the discharge number. Photographs may also be included. It is essential to note down the discharge number as the other relevant National Archive series are organized by this number.
• BT 348 Further career details are given in this series, originally known as the CR 2 collection. The cards are organized by discharge number.
• BT 364 This is a combined index of the CR 1, CR 2 and CR 10 cards and is also arranged by discharge number. Most cards are for seamen who served after 1941 and, therefore, it is possible to find the discharge number by using the series for the Fifth Register of Seamen, BT 382 (see overleaf).
5.
Fifth Register of Seamen, 1941–72
The last publicly available Register of Seamen was begun in 1941 in response to the Essential Work (Merchant Navy) Order. The Government wished to ensure that there would always be adequate personnel to staff vessels and hence created a Reserve Pool of seamen. A system of continuous paid employment was introduced to fulfil this requirement and merchant seamen could now have permanent employment. A new registration system was also introduced along with the Order, and all men who had been serving during the past five years had to register with the authorities. The Fifth Register has two main sources that form its records:
1. Seamen’s pouches
When seamen were registering they were required to provide their CR 1 and CR 2 cards from previous service. They were placed in an envelope and any subsequent paperwork resulting from service would be placed in this envelope when they were discharged. These collections came to be known as ‘seamen’s pouches’. Unfortunately, not every pouch survives; it is estimated that there is a 50:50 chance of finding a pouch for a seaman during this period. The surviving pouches can be found in the following series:
• BT 372 This series contains the majority of pouches including records up to 1973. The series has been fully catalogued by name and can be searched by surname online in The National Archives catalogue.
• BT 390 This includes pouches for merchant seamen who worked on Royal Navy ships during the Second World War (up to 1946). It is currently being catalogued by individual name, thus making it possible to search the series online on The National Archives website, although at the time of publication this process is not complete.
• BT 391 This is another series specific to merchant seamen involved in the Second World War, in this case regarding individuals who worked in ‘special operations’ between June 1944 and May 1945. It has been fully catalogued by surname and can be searched online on The National Archives website.
2. Docket books
Docket books (CRS 10 forms) can be found in The National Archives series BT 382 and give service details of merchant seamen along with birth details and discharge numbers. They are arranged alphabetically by surname, subdivided into eight different parts. The first two parts contain the largest number of records, relating to European and British dependent seamen for 1941 to 1946 and 1946 to 1972 respectively. The majority of records are held within these parts although they may not necessarily be in the right date range. Parts three to six are specific to Asiatic (mainly Indian and Chinese) merchant seamen. Part seven contains records for men who served on ships requisitioned during the Second World War. The last part has records for pension purposes.
Medals Awarded
Merchant Navy personnel have been entitled to medals for service and gallantry from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Indeed, individuals of the Merchant Navy were often involved in conflict during the two world wars and thus became entitled to the same medals as were awarded to military personnel. Below is a summary of the main types of medals given to merchant seamen.
Gallantry Medals
The main medal awarded for gallantry at sea was the Albert Medal. Medal registers for the Albert Medal can be found in BT 97, covering the years 1866 to 1913. Further medal registers for awards of gallantry (from 1866 to 1986) can be found in the following series: BT 261, BT 339 and MT 9.
Medals Awarded for the First World War
Merchant seamen who were involved in the First World War were entitled to four medals:
• The 1914–1915 Star
• The British War Medal
• The Victory Medal
• The Mercantile Marine Medal
The first three medals were the same medals awarded to branches of the armed forces. As such, awards of these medals will be found in the same series as that of the Royal Navy, ADM 171.
The Mercantile Marine Medal was specifically awarded to individuals who served for a minimum of six months during the First World War and made one or more journeys through a danger zone. BT 351 holds an index to each recipient of the award. Each entry should record the name, birth details, rank and other career details.
Merchant seamen and officers were often awarded other Royal Naval gallantry awards and records can be found in ADM 116, ADM 12 and ADM 137.
If you know that the individual you are researching died in conflict then refer to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s ‘debt of honour’ roll, available online at www.cwgc.org (discussed in more detail in Chapter 9).
Medals Awarded for the Second World War
The Merchant Navy formed an important part of the fighting force during the Second World War. The Ministry of Shipping took control over the Merchant Navy as soon as the conflict started in 1939.
The main record series relating to seamen who were awarded a service medal for this period is in BT 395. However, medals were not issued automatically; rather the individual had to claim his medal. Hence, if your ancestor did not claim his medal there will be no record of him in this series. (Indeed, it is still possible for individuals to claim their medals, if they can prove their service to the Registry of Shipping and Seamen. As such the series covers the dates 1946 to 2002.) Any of eight different medals were awarded to merchant navy personnel: the War Medal, the Atlantic Star, 1939–1945 Star, Africa Star, Pacific Star, Burma Star, France and Germany Star, and the Italy Star. This series has now been placed on The National Archives website at Documents Online and can be searched free of charge (viewing a record will incur a cost, though).
Gallantry awards for this period have been described above. Additionally, award of such medals would also be recorded in the London Gazette and The Times, both of which can be searched online.
The Merchant Marine Memorial was built at Tower Hill, London, to commemorate those merchant seamen who died during the world wars. The Trinity House Corporation has the register for this memorial, which can be consulted on their premises at Tower Hill.
The Lloyd’s Marine Collection
The London Guildhall Library houses the marine records of the Corporation of Lloyd’s of London. The collection includes a number of different sources useful for tracing seamen and shipping in general. They include:
• The Mercantile Navy List: This is the official list of British registered merchant ships and has been published annually since 1850 (excluding 1941–46). They list each ship on an individual basis, including its official number, owner and size of vessel. From 1857 to 1864 details of the certificates of masters and mates on the ship were also included.
• The Lloyd’s Register: Another comprehensive list of vessels, produced from 1775 onwards. The lists were compiled for insurance purposes and give details of each individual vessel’s name, number, owner, master and construction details.
• Lloyd’s Captains’ Register: This is the most useful genealogical register, listing holders of masters’ certificates from 1869 to 1948. Each entry also gives the birth details of the individual and a brief career history.
• Lloyd’s List: This list was begun in 1741 and was a weekly register of ships’ arrivals and departures at each particular port, detailing from which port the vessel had come and where it was headed. The name of the master of the ship is also recorded. The Guildhall Library has an index to the ships from 1838 onwards. The National Maritime Museum and the British Library’s Newspaper Archive also have copies of this list.
CASE STUDY
Amanda Redman pt 1
Amanda Redman knew very little about her mother Joan’s family, the Herringtons, other than rumours that her grandfather – Joan’s father – William Herrington was a strict disciplinarian. Yet on talking to Joan a long-forgotten family secret emerged – a missing half-brother, Cyril Herrington, who was the illegitimate daughter of Joan’s mother, Agnes, conceived before she married William. Intrigued, Amanda decided to find out more about her elusive ancestor.
No birth certificate could be found for Cyril, but on asking around the family it turned out that he had died in Liverpool, and that he had married and had a child. By painstakingly looking through civil registration material, Amanda tracked down her half-cousin and, on meeting her, gained some important clues about her half-uncle’s life – including the fact that he served in the Merchant Navy.
By running a search online and checking The National Archives catalogue, Amanda discovered that a key document survived in record series BT 372 – Cyril’s seaman’s pouch, which contained personal information about him. On inspecting its contents, she found photographs of him dating from 1936, when he first signed up as a cook, and 1969, at the end of his career, as well as details of his height, next of kin, address and date of birth – listed as 19 April 1917. However, further documentation also indicated that he had, at some point, changed his name from Pillings to Herrington (possibly giving a clue as to his natural father’s surname) and that his real date of birth was 1919, not 1917.
Amanda was able to cross-reference the information in his seaman’s pouch with another document in the Fifth Register of Seamen in record series BT 382, including a complete list of all the vessels that he had served on from 1941 until his discharge in 1969, including in 1942 an unauthorized stint on an American vessel, the Gulf Coast.
Rather remarkably, further investigation into Amanda’s family tree led to a maternal 2 x great-grandfather who also earned a living in the Merchant Navy – a man with the rather grand name of James St Ledger, who was born in 1837 in New Ross, County Wexford, Ireland. At the time of the 1881 census he was listed as the master of a vessel called the Alma, which was in port at Porthcawl when the enumerators visited. The ship was described as a coasting schooner, with its home port listed as Falmouth, where the rest of James’s family lived. However, he was accompanied on board the Alma by his son, William Henry St Ledger, an ordinary seaman clearly following in his father’s footsteps. Some of the later voyages of the Alma were researched by checking the official ship’s number against the surviving crew lists and agreements at The National Archives, in record series BT 99.
Births, Marriages and Deaths at Sea
Masters of British ships were required to record all births, marriages and deaths that occurred on their vessels from approximately the mid-nineteenth century onwards. The masters would pass this information on to the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen who would subsequently send on the information to the appropriate General Record Office for England, Scotland and Ireland. The National Archives also has the records that were originally with the RGSS. Separate registers were kept for seamen and passengers until 1889. After that date a new combined series of registers was introduced. Details about General Record Offices and the system for recording civil registration certificates for births, marriages and deaths can be found in Chapter 5.
USEFUL INFO
Suggestions for further reading:
• Records of Merchant Shipping and Seamen by Kelvin Smith, Christopher T. Watts and Michael J. Watts (Public Record Office Publications, 1988)
• My Ancestor Was a Merchant Seaman by Christopher T. and Michael J. Watts (Society of Genealogists, 2nd edition, 2002)
• Further details about the National Maritime Museum’s collections and research guides can be found at www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/nav.2983
• The National Archives research guides nos. 89–95 and 110–115
Deaths of Seamen
In 1851 the Seaman’s Fund Winding-up Act was introduced. The Act required that masters of British ships hand over the personal belongings and wages of seamen who died on their ship to the sailor’s next of kin. Records of this were maintained in registers now found in BT 153 (indexed by BT 154). The registers should detail where the seaman was engaged from, his cause of death and his wage details.
Marine Records of the East India Company
The East India Company (EIC), being originally a trading company, was very prominent in marine activities. The company owned and chartered many ships until its abolition in 1858. Many published sources listing the ships owned by the EIC can be consulted either at the National Maritime Museum or at the British Library (where the original records of the EIC are stored). The various registers produced by Lloyd’s (mentioned above) also include information regarding EIC ships.
The British Library has the following EIC records that may be useful to look at:
• The East India Register and Directory, which contains lists of masters and mates under ‘marine establishments’, along with Army officers.
• The EIC records sometimes refer to the appointments of some individual marine officers.
• Journals and logs for approximately 10,000 ships (although not every ship’s record has survived), from the early seventeenth century to 1856. The India Office records are described in more detail in India Office Library and Records: A Brief Guide to Biographical Sources by I.A. Baxter (London, 1979; second edition 1990).
In addition, BT 156 has printed monthly lists of deceased seamen (giving age and birthplace and death details) from 1886 to 1890. BT 157 lists deaths and cause of death of seamen from 1882 to 1888.
HOW TO …
… find online sources for births, marriages and deaths at sea
Some websites provide information on births, marriages and deaths at sea:
1. www.findmypast.com
This website has placed all of the main Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen records available at The National Archives on its website. It is possible to search births from 1854 to 1887, marriages from 1854 to 1883 and deaths from 1854 to 1890. It can be searched free of charge but viewing the record incurs a cost.
2. www.shiplist.com
This website has transcribed every marriage found in BT 334/117 and can be viewed free of charge at www.theshiplist.com/ Forms/marriagesatsea.html.
Births, Marriages and Deaths of Passengers, 1854–91
All of these three events were legally required to be recorded after the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854. They were extracted from the official ships’ logs and can be found in the following sources:
• BT 158 has details of births, marriages and deaths of all passengers at sea from 1854 to 1890. After 1883 there are no marriages recorded; only births and deaths to 1887 (with deaths only from 1888).
• BT 159 has registers of deaths at sea of British nationals from 1875 to 1891.
• BT 160 lists births of British nationals from 1875 to 1891. The registers of BT 159 and BT 160 were formed in response to the Birth and Death Registration Act of 1874, whereby ships’ masters had to record births and deaths separately for all British and foreign-registered ships.
Combined Registers of Passengers and Seamen, 1891–1964
After 1891 a new system was introduced whereby births, marriages and deaths of passengers and seamen (marriages and deaths only) were recorded together in a combined register. The majority of these records are in BT 334 and include details of non-British nationals too. There are indexes to births and deaths, indexed by individual surname and by the name of the ship. All entries should include the ship’s name, official number and where it was registered.
• Births: Births are recorded from 1891 to 1964 (indexes to 1960). The record gives the father’s name, rank or occupation, birthplace or nationality and last residence and the mother’s name, maiden surname and last residence.
• Marriages: Marriages start from 1854 and go up to 1972 and are all found in piece BT 334/117 (also available online).
• Deaths: Death registers are available from 1891 to 1964. Additionally, BT 341 included any inquests for deaths at sea (organized by ship name).