Author Topic: Royal/ Merchant Navy records???  (Read 2212 times)

Offline Trish1908

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Re: Royal/ Merchant Navy records???
« Reply #9 on: Monday 12 June 17 12:47 BST (UK) »
Many thanks for posting the seamans ticket numbers for James Skillings. I did some more digging (Mainly on the guidance pages on the Nat Archives site) and think I have solved parts of it - i think the initial(s) are his rank/ job, so in 1845 he was Mate, Cook, Seaman and then Mate. I'm not sure on the next series of numbers, but think the one after that is the port (92 = Sunderland, 83 Rochester) and I think the final pair of numbers is the half of the year he was on that ship/ rank (eg 6-45 would be June 1845.

Happy to be corrected/ assisted if anyone knows otherwise, and I think the first set of numbers might be relating to the name of the ship??

Thanks again!
Trish
Bone - Leeds/ Tempsford, Bedfordshire
Overment - Norfolk
Skillings - Norfolk
Woodhouse - Kingston upon Hull
Fell - East Yorks
Hulse - Repton, Derbyshire
Cooper - Chapel en le Frith

Offline seaweed

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Re: Royal/ Merchant Navy records???
« Reply #10 on: Monday 12 June 17 13:41 BST (UK) »
Annette,
Thanks for taking the time to copy the information.
If we take the first entry for 1845. He served as Mate (M) on a Sunderland registered vessel (port number 92) and the vessels port rotation number was 1060.  The crew agreement was lodged  with the port authority in June 1845. So it looks like he served on a coast trade ship. After that voyage, he served as Cook on a Rochester registered vessel with the port rotation number of 389. then as a seaman on a Sunderland registered vessel with the port rotation number 26. Finely back as Mate on the the Sunderland vessel PRN 1060
The key to finding out the vessels name is the port rotation number. Unfortunately, no key exists to link the PRN to a vessels name.
The only way to find this out is by trawling through the crew agreements for a particular year available by visiting TNA Kew. Series BT98, looking for him by name or PRN. Most of the vessels he served on were Sunderland registered so I would make a start there. There are 77 boxes in all, each containing approx 50 vessels. So there are are no quick fixes.
I attach the 1851 index's to give you an idea of the task.
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_ep=sunderland&_cr=bt%2098&_dss=range&_sd=1851&_ed=1851&_ro=any&_st=adv

Tees,
There was no official registration of merchant seaman between 1857 and 1913. The Merchant Navy began to register its seamen again in 1913, in the central indexed register, or Fourth Register of Seamen. However, the entries for 1913 to 1917 have not survived. If he saw service from 1918 FindMyPast may have records. What you are looking for is ideally the name and official number of his last ship. It may then be possible to back track on his previous ships via Crew Agreements but you need to be very lucky.
A small collection of C/A's are at FindMyPast. I don't know about "Ancestry" Majority of C/A's for 1881 are on line here
https://www.mun.ca/mha/crew-agreement-links.php

and for 1915, here,
http://1915crewlists.rmg.co.uk/

SW


















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Offline Chris Riley

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Re: Royal/ Merchant Navy records???
« Reply #11 on: Thursday 01 August 19 21:59 BST (UK) »
Hi just been told that James Barwick Skillings (married to Mary Codling) is my great grandfather. Getting my family tree done at the moment.