CR1/2

[Linna]

Hi everyone

I've just found a CR1 and CR2 for a relative of mine. His CR1 was impounded because someone else appears to have used his card for a voyage. I have tried to find out what the regulation was but with no success. Can anyone point me in the direction of the regulations or what the punishment was for giving your cards to someone else. Would there be a record of the punishment received? I've attached images of the relevant parts

[HMac]

Hi Linna,
The cards refer to his voyages aboard ship and specifically to his discharge book number (R40601) - a seaman could only have one. A seaman by the name of A. Stark (R117993) appears to have used his book.
Further investigation suggests that Alexander Stark served as Albert John Hoare for some, as yet unknown, reason. They both have different  dates and place of birth.

The only common ship that links them was CAIRNVALONA official number 140718 in 1934. The Crew Agreement is held in Canada but sadly it looks like the official logbook for that year does not survive and that is the document I would have liked to see.
Regards
Hugh

[Linna]

Hi Hugh

Thanks for the quick response. Are you aware of any punishments meted out to others who have done the same thing or is this a rare occurrence?
Do you know what sort of checks were carried out to verify identity or was it not considered an issue at the time?

Are the crew agreements online so that I can check for other of my relatives who were in the merchant service.

Thanks again for the information you've already provided.

Linna

[HMac]

Hi Linna,
I have seen a few albeit fairly rare instances of seamen having duplicate Dis.A numbers. Usually caused by a seaman leaving the service and then rejoining again and being given a new number while his old number was still current (poor record keeping). When this situation happened usually one of the number's was cancelled with a note on the card stating why.
Your case is not the same though. On Alexander Stark's record it states: "served as Albert John Hoare with Dis.A number R40601". 
Sadly, many of those cards in the Fourth Register of Seamen do not survive so the only way to track someone would be via Crew Agreements.

Both seamen's cards show engaged on CAIRNVALONA 1/1/1934 so focus on that voyage.
Crew Agreements are not available online. For CAIRNVALONA, 140718 in 1934 see this site about ordering same. https://www.mun.ca/mha/about/orderagreements.php You can contact them first to check if either named seaman is shown on the agreement. As I said previously the official logbook would probably offer up more information if it was available.

To answer your other question about punishments - there were fines of course and the master could give a poor discharge (DR) to any seamen who broke the rules. This could make it difficult for a seaman to get another ship.

I think it fair to say that checking of identity was not a number one priority back then.

Regards
Hugh

[Linna]

Hi Hugh

Thanks for that full and informative reply. It has given me something to go on anyway. Years ago I had a puzzle over an army record for my grandfather. It took several years but, as records became available, I was finally able to piece the story together, so this puzzle may take time but no doubt something may surface enventually.

Thanks again for you help

Linna