Captain James Greenwood - need help

[cath151]

Hi
The Eric Calvert is mentioned on this site, does nt give much info but tells you what sort of ship it was , Broomfield on there too. Quite hard to negotiate the site though. http://www.crewlist.org.uk/data/vesselsalpha.php

Cathy

[Nutley]

Hi Cathy , thank you , have had a look at the site found Broomfleet and Eric Calvert when I then researched Masters for both Ships - no details found. Thanks anyway, I really do Hope that I don't eventually discover that the records were destroyed. My Father died last year, not that he really knew very much as he was only 10 years of age when his father died. But he did tell me that he was given a middle name of Eric after his Father's Ship the Eric Calvert .

[seaweed]

I take it that your primary aim is to find details of his entire Merchant Navy career?
I do not have a subscription to "Ancestry" so I am entirely in the darkabout what details are on there so I will try and explain the best way to find this information from other sources.
The only positive you have is that he died aboard the BROOMFLEET 8/9/1928. He died from Acute Pneumonia of the left lung and fatty degeneration of the heart.
Your first step is to obtain a copy of the relevent crew agreement of BROOMFLEET official number 136080. Problem is this is held in Newfoundland. It would seem she also has logbooks for the year 1928 which will give details of his demise.
http://www.mun.ca/mha/holdings/viewcombinedcrews.php?Official_No=136080
They have a very good research service.
What the crew agreement should tell you is a positive certificate number and the name of his previous ship.
If you can get hold of this, come back and I or others will give you further advice.
Do you wish to know details of BROOMFLEET?
I can find no WW1 medal listing for him.

[Nutley]

Hi Seaweed, thank you very much for your feedback and directions as to what I should do. I will go ahead and ask for 'The Crew Agreement'. Presumably we can then work backwards starting with Brromfleet.
Yes, I would be interested in going as far back as I can. I understood from my Father that when he was a small boy he and his mother travelled down to London to meet up with his Father. It was my understanding the his Father sailed transatlantic presumably from Southampton or Portsmouth and therefore London was a convenient place to meet up.
My Grandfather was certainly sailing with The Calvert S.S. Co Ltd. in 1915 as I have his watch which was presented to him by the company in appreciation of services rendered date 30.8.1915..
I think I'm right in saying Calvert was goole based. So he must have been travelling out of Goole or Hull then. My Father was born in 1918. So sometime between 1918 and his death in 1928 when he was obviously back sailing out of Hull, he did sail transatlantic.
My Father told me that he went back to sailing out of Goole and Hull because he missed being away from the family all the time.
I don't know whether this is at all relevant in my search for his records. I will assume unless I hear from you to the contrary that I will progress as suggested by getting the initial records for Broomfleet from the archives in Newfoundland. Would however be fascinated to know why these records are in Newfoundland?
Thanks so much again.
Sally 

[seaweed]

I will go ahead and ask for 'The Crew Agreement'. Presumably we can then work backwards starting with Broomfleet.
 I will assume unless I hear from you to the contrary that I will progress as suggested by getting the initial records for Broomfleet from the archives in Newfoundland. Would however be fascinated to know why these records are in Newfoundland?

OK. Also ask for the Crew List from the logbook.  Hopefully this will contain further details of his Masters Certification number. If we can get hold of this we may be able to short circuit the process rather than trace his service back tracking via Crew Agreements. Try and obtain any details from the Death at Sea pages of the relevent Logbook. This may give a further insight into the cause of his demise.
I look forward to hearing from you when you have this information. Meanwhile, I will continue digging and post anything of interest.

Why are these records in Newfoundland?
Basically no one else wanted them.  Lots of invaluable paper documents, not just Maritime related, were destroyed simply because there was no physical space to accommodate them.  For example The individual WW2 RAF pilots flying logbooks took up over 8 miles of shelf space, so they were burnt. What a resource for family historians! Of course today these documents would have been digitally recorded.

In 1966 the National Archives in London [Public Record Office] took the decision to discard part of the “Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen, the Agreements and Account of Crew and Official Logbooks” for British Empire vessels from 1861 to1913. The decision met with considerable opposition from archivists and maritime and labour historians; these records were considered to be a valuable and largely untapped source of information on seafaring labour and the shipping industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Eventually, through the co-operative effort of a number of individuals, the disposition of the Crew Agreements was settled, with the bulk of the records being transferred to the Memorial University of Newfoundland's Maritime History Archive .

[km1971]

Apologies if this has been covered. I have not read the whole thread.

If you have not seen the original 'Death at sea' entry it is on Findmypast - http://www.findmypast.co.uk/records/maritime/view-image/D/518518

The position appears to have been in the North Sea, which is not surprising given the ship's home port. It also gives the cause of death.

In the National Archives there is a series of microfiche entitled Indexes to certificates of competency, masters, mates, engineers and fishing officers starting 1910. They are in BT 352, and they are not available online.

Ken

[Nutley]

Thank you both Seaweed and Ken. Ken I am not unfortunately a subscriber to' find my Past' . I subscribe to 'ancestry.co.uk'. Anyway I have just E Mailed the Maritime records office in Newfoundland with all this information as detailed by you Seaweed. So we will see what comes through.
Much appreciate your interest. Will obviously post information as soon as I get it. No idea how long it will take them.

Sally

[Nutley]

Sorry Seaweed I forget to say thank you for giving me the information as to why records are kept in Newfoundland - absolutely fascinating and how sad it is that the WW2 Airforce Pilot records were destroyed.

Oh, and Ken, are you suggesting that I go to The Archives office in Kew as well as following the Newfoundland route?

Sally

[seaweed]

The death at sea information I posted is from FindMyPast. Yes. As soon as you have a positive certification number you would need to return to Kew to view the files as Ken suggests. My gut feeling is to obtain his entire MN service history, back tracking on crew agreements would be the only way to go. However lets see if we can short circuit that route. Apart from anything it would be cheaper than obtaining crew agreements.