Merchant Navy Ships

[Bumblebee083]

Hello Westoe. thank you for all your hard work. You found out information about Solange that i knew nothing about. The Anglo Saxon was torpedoed so he must have been on ships after that.
I downloaded the medal card and was disappointed to find the word "Rejected" written across. What do you think this meant - he wasn't entitled to any? What a waste of £3.50.
I have a subscription to FindMyPast so which newspaper do I need to read.
I have his marriage details and he stated that he was an Engineer.
Looking forward to any thing else you come up with.

[Westoe]

Hello Bumblebee,

It's the wee smalls here in central Canada, so I won't be PM-ing you tonight (too tired to think).

However, ... re the newspapers ... The post about the drowning for which I attached the thumbnail included the name of the newspaper and the date.

The articles about the inquest will come up if you use search parameter "Peter Claude Vernon" (and please do use those quotation marks around the search term).

I'm suspecting that your man did not actually have a merchant navy career, but instead was involved at the shipbuilding/design end with those two known vessels. IF, as Seaweed has suggested, he was involved with the conversion of SOLANGE from sail-to-motor, it is quite reasonable that he would have been aboard her during her sea trials and running-in.

Now then ... did ANGLO SAXON also undergo some modifications in the early thirties which might have involved having a design engineer aboard her during sea trials and running-in?

One way to check is to see the crew lists held at the Maritime History Archive at Memorial University in Newfoundland.  They do hold crew lists for her 1929 - 1934 inclusive, plus some later years. Intriguing is the fact that in 1929, she was a Home Trade vessel, but by 1930 she was a Foreign Going vessel. That might have involved some modifications to her engines, which in turn, might have involved someone from the firm being aboard her from sea trials through running-in.

Now, those crew agreements from MHA are not cheap, but I *think* that you can specify that you are interested only if your man is named therein. Here's the link:
https://www.mun.ca/mha/holdings/viewcombinedcrews.php?Official_No=161279

IF your man were a design engineer rather than an onboard serving officer, he might have been considered to be in a "reserved occupation" after the outbreak of war - i.e. too valuable to the overall war effort in a shipyard to be a serving officer aboard a merchant ship. After all, Dennis Seton Vernon had commenced a yachtyard in Chichester in the 1930's. Maybe Henry worked for Dennis Vernon rather than in the merchant navy. And that might explain why no medal.

 There! That basically was what I was going to PM you about - I've done it.

Good Luck! to you lass.

Cheers,
Westoe

[HMac]

The criteria for merchant seamen to be awarded campaign medals during WW1 is as follows:

Mercantile Marine Medal – awarded to those who served at sea for at least six months, and on at least one voyage through a danger zone
British War Medal - automatically awarded to all recipients of the Mercantile Marine Medal.

We know he was serving in 1918 as he has a CR10 card - the one with his photo. What we don't know is when he joined the service and whether he met the above criteria. The lack of a crew agreement for SOLANGE may be the big stumbling block here I am afraid.

We can not always be aware what is in a file until it is downloaded but as a researcher, I would leave no stone unturned in any quest for information so it would have been remiss of me not to mention it. Sorry about the £3.50.

Regards
Hugh