Sailing Ship Crew Lists

[liquefaction]

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to look up ship crew lists. For example I would like to view the crew list for the "Blue Jacket" which sailed from London 5th August 1865, arriving Lyttelton, New Zealand 1865.

[gortonboy]

yes,,if you just google   blue jacket,1865    you can see the list on free pages on Ancestry.

[liquefaction]

Thanks. No problem finding the passenger list but I hope to see a crew list for the Blue Jacket sailing to Lyttelton, 1865. No luck todate.

[seaweed]

There were several vessels named BLUE JACKET around in 1865. Both Shaw Savill and the White Star line had vessels with this name who served the NZ immigration trade. The Shaw Savill vessel sailed from the Thames on 5th Aug 1865 bound for Canterbury.
Details are sketchy but I suspect its this one.
Official number 13691
Her Crew Agreements for 1865 should be at the National Maritime Museum Greenwich.
You should be able to obtain copies by first of all filling in this form or  e-mailing them first.
http://www.rmg.co.uk/researchers/library/crew-lists-agreements-and-official-logs-request-form
Be sure to give the ships official number.
If the information I have given proves to be the wrong BLUE JACKET come back and we can take it from there. Let us know how you get on.
A long shot
http://www.findmypast.co.uk/search/clip-crew-lists

[liquefaction]

Thank you very much for the information. Using the Official number I was able to track records held in the Maritime History Archive, Memorial University, Canada. (holds 70% of these records) The 1863 and 1866 sailings were listed but unfortunately not the 1865 sailing. The data that came up also said that they are not aware of any other crew agreements held in the UK county records offices for Official Number 13691.

Incidentally the fees for looking up and providing information are quite expensive, however, I do not need to take that into account and perhaps with a lot of luck I can find the 1865 list from some other unlikely source.

[seaweed]

Most logbooks and crew agreements of British vessels, for years ending in "5" are stored at NMM Greenwich
http://www.rmg.co.uk/researchers/library/research-guides/the-merchant-navy/tracing-people-crewlists-agreements-logs
There is some confusion in online sources, in particular, newspaper archives. British sources say BLUE JACKET sailed on the 5th Aug 1865 and is given as a Shaw Savill vessel.
NZ newspaper sources say that BLUE JACKET arrived on 16/Nov/1865 and says she was a White Star vessel under command of  a Captain James White.
I believe it is the same ship. Understandably, newspapers are not familiar with different shipping Lines and from experience online sources are far from accurate when it comes to information concerning Merchant ships.
Problem is there is no reference to a BLUE JACKET that would fit the bill in Lloyds Register or the Mercantile Navy List. A look at Lloyds Lists for the period in question may shed some light.
 The information I gave in my first post albeit an educated guess, would be a sensible way forward. Its your decision on how you wish to proceed.

[liquefaction]

Thank you very much for your help. I live in Christchurch New Zealand and the Blue Jacket that sailed 5th August 1865 arrived Port Lyttelton 13th November 1865. That is from the passenger list ex RootsWeb and other sites. Also confirmed from local newspapers. No problem with that. I have just received a message from a distant relative who says she does not live far from the Maritime Museum in Greenwich and will check it out. The Captain listed on the Passenger List is Capt. Stevens. I will see what my relative comes up with before checking further myself.

Your replies to my messages are greatly appreciated.

[mabeljessie]

Hi Liquefaction,

I often find that the strangest places might yield the best results I had a look at some reports of the "Blue Jacket" and it seems that the 1865 vessel to New Zealand had a few problems with small pox an typhoid fever on board and was quarantined.
Now from what this web site says it arrived in Lyttleton on November 13 1865 and didn't depart until February 12 1866. If this is the case you may be able to search some early quarantine records or at least look at a broader range of dates in NZ for your ancestor.

http://earlycanterbury.blogspot.com.au/2010/10/blue-jacket.html

There are also interesting articles on Papers Past NZ particularly this one which is a reprint from the "Lyttleton Times" where a bottle was found thrown from the "Blue Jacket" telling the tales of the voyage including "a serious mutiny" and injuries to crew.  The other interesting fact is that the adverts for the return voyage show Captain White as the Commander.

It seems if your ancestor was aboard the ship he would have had a colourful journey.

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=WI18651121.2.5.3&srpos=15&e=13-11-1865-12-02-1866--100-WCHG%2cWCHT%2cWT%2cWDA%2cWDT%2cWC%2cWH%2cWI%2cWCT%2cWEST-1----2Blue+jacket--

Cheers and goodluck
mabeljessie

[liquefaction]

Thanks for the information. It certainly must have been an "interesting"  trip but the passengers would have been very pleased to finally get on shore at Lyttelton.

A relative in England has been able to view the Blue Jacket crew list at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich and unfortunately the person whom we hoped would be on the CREW list is missing. Elizabeth COTT is on the passenger list which says that "she is from NSW and her husband is a steward on the ship and they intend to settle in the colony". We had been expecting to find that it was a GEORGE Cott who was the steward and husband,  but no such luck.

We have been researching a George Cott, born 1828, Laycock, Wiltshire as it has been speculated that he was the steward on the Blue Jacket and his wife/partner's maiden name was Vickers. It has also been thought that the Cotts may have changed their name to Scott  after arrival at Lyttelton/Christchurch New Zealand. If anyone has any information that could be of assistance, please go to http://amscott.tribalpages.com
 
Go to George Cott born 1828 and read his notes to more fully explain our suspicions. It is speculated that this George Cott could be the same person as George Scott ( listed in Tribalpages as born about 1832 and died 1877 in Christchurch).

With no George Cott (or Scott) on the Blue Jacket crew list as should be the case based on passenger list information for Elizabeth Cott, we are no further ahead in our research. Research is continuing. Thanks for the posts.