Belgium, Antwerp December 1956 - Death of unknown seaman aboard SS Levenpool

[Tjapaltjarri]

I am looking for help with locating the final resting place of this seaman.

I am pretty sure I know who he was but proving it is another matter. I contacted the Antwerp City Archives but they were unable to help in any way with evidence for this death so I am interested in whether there would have been a post mortem and whether a record for this exists? Would there be a Police record? What was the practice for dealing with these incidents, Burial by the local authority after a period of time as in UK or something else? Would a death certificate have been issued? Are there cemetery records for this period which could be searched by a Belgium researcher and how might one find such a person?

The man's remains were discovered at the bottom of the ship's water tank along with empty whisky bottles !

So may unanswered questions - sorry.

Many thanks for any light you can shed on this matter,

Howdie

[Jebber]

You don’t give any indication as to his nationality, was he Belgian or British, if British have you checked  to see if the death was recorded by the British Consulate. If so you should be able it obtain a British death certificate.

[Viktoria]

Yes, each town or city has a Consul , often Belgian but always English speaking,also the Ambassador would be in Brussels .You might try The Seaman’s Mission, Antwerp,  there was one in Gent as it was an inland port .

Hope you have some success.
Viktoria.

[Tjapaltjarri]

You don’t give any indication as to his nationality, was he Belgian or British, if British have you checked  to see if the death was recorded by the British Consulate. If so you should be able it obtain a British death certificate.

Thanks for this idea. The vessel was British registered but the seamen were not necessarily British is my understanding. So I would need to look and see if there was a British Death Certificate issued in respect of this unknown seaman likely sometime between February 1956 (if they established that the death was likely to have been several months earlier) and later into 1957 if there was a delay in getting it registered. Would it be amongst the Deaths at Sea or in the British deaths registered abroad? Are these available for online searching please?

Many thanks,

Howdie

[jorose]

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-records/british-armed-forces-and-overseas-deaths-and-burials

You can search here with place = a ship.
There are various deaths with location as "Levenpool", none that fit.
There are three deaths for Male Unknown in 1956-1960, none that fit.

Other sources who might help (or at least be able to tell you how this death would have been handled)
RMG:
https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/research-guides/research-guide-c1-merchant-navy-tracing-people-crew-lists-agreements
or the maritime history archive in Canada who hold a lot of records for British registered ships:
https://mha.mun.ca/mha/

[HMac]

As already stated there appears to be no death at sea registered for that ship at that time.

There is no Ship's Official Logbook for LEVENPOOL official number 168941 indexed at the MHA in Canada which is where the vast majority of logbooks are held for this era. That may not be a problem however as most are not indexed for this time but are held off site and would need to be searched by their staff.

So hopefully they will have a logbook and if so the Master would have noted in the narrative section of the log what happened. Even if no logbook has survived they will probably still have the Crew Agreement which in itself would indicate who was discharged dead.

You should email them but make sure you ask for LEVENPOOL official numnber 168941 and the dates you need. They are very helpful but there will be a charge for any documents they send to you. I am not sure of their basic costs.

MHA Canada contact details for research: mhares@mun.ca

Regards
Hugh