Merchant Navy Record Cards 1918-1921

[George.]

This is a section of a record card and I would appreciate some help with the word which looks like Sakkarah.

Is it a ship's name? I have searched for one without success.

Thanks

[Skoosh]

There's a port named Sakata in Japan?

Skoosh.

[George.]

I've found it now through a great website: http://www.crewlist.org.uk/data/ships.php

[seaweed]

The digits represent an individual vessels "Official Number" Official numbers were unique to the same vessel as long as she remained on the British and Empire Register no matter how many name changes she had. If the ship was sold foreign and later returned to the British register she would be issued with the same O/N.
For example, 142826 is the Newcastle registered vessel WESTCLIFF.
You can use the "CLIP" finding aid to discover the names of all the ships he sailed on between 1919 and 1921.
If you are looking for his seagoing service in WW1. These records have been destroyed. The only way is to back track via Crew agreements which will give the name and/or O/N of his previous vessel.
The 1919 crew agreements for 142826 are available from here.
https://www.mun.ca/mha/holdings/viewcombinedcrews.php?Official_No=142826
Pre 1919 should be stored at TNA Kew. Indexed by the ships official number.

[George.]

Thank you for that, Seaweed.

So each of those 6 digit numbers represents a different vessel, but why would Sakkarah be named not numbered?

[seaweed]

Depends on who was writing the record. Simple as that.
These records were written by bored Board of Trade clerks, sometimes months after the event.
Mistakes are fairly common so there is a need to verify via official Crew Agreements and Logbooks.
I note from his photograph that he appears to be wearing some kind of military tunic. Could he have served in one of the other services prior to joining the Merchant Service?

[George.]

Again, thanks for that and, yes, he was in the 1st Bedfordshire before the MN.