MS Sophia (Captain McIntosh)

[nanny jan]

This ship is mentioned in a probate document of 1830.  John Ottley died in 1829 and is shown as the Ship's Carpenter's Mate.

John's mother Mary and sister Jane are shown as living in Poplar at the time.

Where can I find more details of either John's life (no baptism found ....yet) or his service with the ship?

All help gratefully received.   

[Westoe]

Hello nanny jan,

What is the actual specific reference to the vessel? Please quote. Was it actually referred to as "MS" ? or have you captioned it that meaning "merchant ship"? At that date I would expect the reference to be more like "and my half share in the barkentine JANE of Cullercoats" which gives the rig and the port of registry, both necessary aids for tracing ships.

Volumes of Lloyd's Register of Shipping are free online and can be searched both by vessel name and by master surname and luckily "McIntosh" is short enough not to be truncated to fit the column.
http://www.maritimearchives.co.uk/lloyds-register.html

But please be aware that the information therein can be a year out  of date.

Cheers,
Westoe

[nanny jan]

It is from his probate document and he is described as "late Carpenter's Mate belonging to the Merchant Ship Sophia (Captain McIntosh). He died intestate.

The document is available on Ancestry.

Thank you for the link......I will investigate.   

[Westoe]

There is the possibility that this SOPHIA was not listed with Lloyd's.

Another option is the historical newspapers. The usual format in the Shipping News columns is "Vessel Name COMMA Master's Surname" so I would search for "SOPHIA, McIntosh" and also for "SOPHIA, MacIntosh". You may eventually find a snippett that identifies SOPHIA as being "of" a certain port and that will be the key to finding out more about her.

Cheers,
Westoe

[nanny jan]

I had not thought of newspapers; thanks!