Death in Sierra Leone dated 1854

[Westoe]

Hello again, Pentire,

Taking a closer look with fresher eyes, (it was the wee smalls here in Canada when I replied last night), I'm thinking that it was a London-registered vessel he was on at the time of his death, "64" being the Port Number for London.

Unfortunately for your research, your man's death happened just a little over a year before the Board of Trade (abbreviated as either BoT or BT) stopped using that arcane code of Port Numbers and Vessel Rotation Numbers and started writing in the name of the vessel in plain English as you will notice looking at the other masters on that page.

Did your man have siblings who were also mariners? I notice
 - Arthur DAY b. Appledore 1810, certificate #38,035
 - Robert DAY b. Appledore 1812, certificate #38,357
 - William DAY b. Appledore 1822, Register Ticket #79951, Mate Certificates #58311 and #68,027

Cheers,
Westoe

[pentire]

Hello Westoe - in this day and age, I don't know why I continue to be surprised that you should be in Canada helping me with enquiries based in Devon! The news is a little disappointing, but not insurmountable.

None of those names are siblings as far as I am aware. The Days were prolific in Appledore, and William J's father, son and grandson were all master mariners. One of the other Robert's was a customs officer, which rather put him on the other side of the fence.

Thinking of you being in Canada, my Devon research led me to one of the highlights of my family history career when I had contact with a long lost cousin several times removed who contacted me from Mississauga in Ontario!

[Westoe]

More for Pentire,

Do have a look here. Scroll down this alphabetically-arranged list of masters with surnames starting "D". If any of them are yours, there's something for your "to do" list if ever you have a chance to visit London Metropolitan Archives, which is where these registers are now kept.

http://www.history.ac.uk/gh/capsD.pdf

Cheers,
Westoe

[Westoe]

Hello Pentire,

I had a look when I was at the public library on the W/E. Yes!, your man's Record of Service is on Ancestry with his certificate. You'll be very happy with all the detail in it.

Cheers,
Westoe

[pentire]

Hello Westoe - thanks for your continued help and support. I have managed to print off the certificate. Can you tell me the steps that I need to take to unearth his record of service. I am obviously skirting around it, but not quite finding it.

Thanks.

[ShaunJ]

From memory the list of ships he'd served on was on the previous page to the certificate.

[pentire]

Thanks Shaun J, I've found that. Now I wish that the handwriting was a bit clearer!

[Westoe]

What words are you having trouble with, Pentire? Just list them by column number and position from the top and I will take another look next time I'm at the library.

BUT ... a look at this link should help you interpret the vessel names. It appears that your man frequently visited Prince Edward Island, Canada ... and ... I suggest that you read this entire page carefully, cross-referencing the dates to the dates on his record of service.  (Can't say more because I don't want to spoil your "Aha!!" moment.)

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DEV/Bideford/PEI-Bideford

Cheers,
Westoe.

[pentire]

Hi Westoe - many thanks once again - there is so much to search through. In particular I was noticing the sailing in 1830 where a Captain Day was mentioned. As William J would only have been 18, it is unlikely to be him, and there is an outside chance that it may have been his father Thomas (born 1789) who was also a master mariner.