Census, Mariners at sea

[stanmapstone]

[quote author=purplemoon  had one in Jamaica and another in Shanghai, China.

Jamaica is the name of the ship. When it says 'District xxxxx'
'xxxx' is the name of the ship.
Stan

[purplemoon]

Jamaica is the name of the ship. When it says 'District xxxxx'
'xxxx' is the name of the ship.
Stan

If you look at the front page with the enumeration details it gives the location of the ship on the night the census was taken and is separate from the district details which, as you say, is actually the name of the ship.

I found it quite by accident whilst trying to locate someone in or near Gibraltar, and before I spotted this thread, so can't remember now exactly which pages I was looking at 

[stanmapstone]

If you look at the front page with the enumeration details it gives the location of the ship on the night the census was taken and is separate from the district details which, as you say, is actually the name of the ship.

I am very familiar with the census schedules. On the page with the enumeration details it has "Jamaica" as being 'off point Lynas' at midnight on April 7th. 1861. The schedule was delivered to the master "Lpool River 8/4/61". So they arrived in port on the Monday.

The instructions for the 1861 census should have meant that only British ships in the coasting or home trade which arrived in port within a certain period, or British ships in the foreign trade which were in port on census night should have been issued with ships' schedules. British foreign-going ships in foreign waters before 8th April should not have been given schedules.
However an examination of the schedules reveals British ships which were in the Baltic and Mediterranean on census night, apparently these were foreign going vessels mistakenly given schedules by the customs officers.

[purplemoon]

I can't actually remember exactly which pages I was looking at now, like I said I discovered them quite by accident, and by the time I spotted this thread I'd closed the browser so couldn't back track to find it again, although I managed to find the page I quoted above which I thought might be of some use to the OP.

The front pages of the few I read were slightly different to the ones in the schedules on the above page and if I recall had a large crest in the centre with details of the ship/military base and it's whereabouts below. I wasn't actually looking at the ship called Jamaica (didn't even know there was one till you mentioned it  ) but I do remember a couple of the locations actually being at Jamaica and Shanghai, China but don't recall the names of the ships, or even if they were actually ships!

Does any of this ring any bells with you?

[stanmapstone]

The front pages of the few I read were slightly different to the ones in the schedules on the above page and if I recall had a large crest in the centre with details of the ship/military base and it's whereabouts below.
Does any of this ring any bells with you?

These are the returns for the Royal Navy, which are different to those of the Merchant Marine and Fishing Vessels.
http://content.ancestry.co.uk/Browse/list.aspx?dbid=8767&path=Royal+Navy.Vessels


Apparently any nominal returns for the Royal Navy in 1841 and 1851, if they were made, have not survived. From 1861 onwards the commanding officers of Royal Naval vessels,both in home waters and abroad, were furnished with special naval schedules in which they recorded the names and details  of the officers and crew and any passengers.
Stan

[purplemoon]

Ahhh right, yes those are the ones I'd found - thanks for clearing that up for me! You learn something new every day

[trian]

To all,

Thank you for your input.  All sound very interesting. I have no idea which ship my gr gr grandfather was aboard on any census, just a bit of a shot in the dark really.  I do know he was in the merchant service between 1860's and 1880's and a master at the time of his death, before 1891 (again, I do not know the exact year of his death).
Anyway thanks you for all of the information.
Regards
Trish