Help wanted tracing a sea captain from Ireland

[deejayEn]

My 3-times great grandfather was Bartholmew Henry Higgins, born in Deptford, Kent in 1814. He rose from being an apprentice on a coal boat to a very successful master mariner (captain) of numerous ships until he retired in the 1870s. Two of his sons were also mariners.
He and 3 of his siblings were baptised in Our Lady Of The Sea in Greenwich which was known as "The Sailor's Church", so I'm assuming that Bartholomew's father Patrick Higgins was also a mariner. But I'm struggling to find out anything other than he married Winfred O'Hara and was born in Ireland.
Some of Bartholomew's children were born in Ireland in the 1840s (according to the census, although it doesn't state where in Ireland), so in his trade as a mariner he clearly lived in Ireland on and off before settling in London.
Does anyone have access to marine records and can trace any Irish mariners, probably a captain, called Patrick Higgins. He would have been born in the 1780s, possibly residing in Dublin or Waterford (I'm guessing the later because Bartholomew was also a marine pilot and was permitted to pilot ships to ports in the south of England and to Waterford so that must be a place he knew well and was possibly where his family originated from, or where his father as a sea captain was based).
Any help/advice would be gratefully received.

[seaweed]

I am a little uncertain which one of your ancestors you are seeking.There would be no separate records for Irish master mariners during this period.
Ancestry may be the place to start.
https://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=2271
Lloyd's Captains Register is also another source but unfortunately it is not indexed online for surnames beginning with the letter "H" Available from London Metropolitan Archives
Series BT124 1850 -1881 part of which is downloadable  from the National Archives at Kew may also give some information. However this series is catalogued by certificate number.
See also http://www.irishmariners.ie/searchdatabase.php?srch_surname=higgins&srch_forename=patrick&srch_identityno=&srch_yob=1880&submit=Search

[gaffy]

... Does anyone have access to marine records and can trace any Irish mariners, probably a captain, called Patrick Higgins. He would have been born in the 1880s, possibly residing in Dublin or Waterford (I'm guessing the later because Bartholomew was also a marine pilot and was permitted to pilot ships to ports in the south of England and to Waterford so that must be a place he knew well and was possibly where his family originated from, or where his father as a sea captain was based) ...

Do you mean the 1780s, or have I misunderstood? (ie. is the Patrick you mean, in the extract of your post above, the father of Bartholmew Henry Higgins?)

[deejayEn]

Gaffy - yes Patrick would have been born in the 1780s, I have corrected it now.

Seaweed - thanks for the advice. I know a lot about Bartholomew, it is Patrick Higgins who I am trying to find out more about and he is Bartholomew's father but obvioulsy it's a lot easier trying to trace an Irishman called Bartholomew than Patrick, Higgins. But I'm hoping that he was a mariner like his son. I have tried Ancestry but the baptism and marriage records from before 1800 don't list occupations and there are loads of Patrick Higgins in Ireland. I was hoping that as he probably was a mariner that it would be easier find info on him from maritime records but wasn't sure where to start and whether or not Irish records were available.
One other point is that there is a burial date of a Patrick Higgins of the right age to be Bartholomew's father in the same church as his baptism, just three years after his birth so if that was his father that would mean that Bartholomew and his siblings grew up without dad unless their mother Winifred remarried. But I can find no record of their mother remarrying although she may have done so in Ireland.