Introducing Merchant Seafaring
There is a stereotype of the English-speaking seafarer - the well known Jack Tar. The Maritime History Archive's Crew Agreements show the inaccuracy of this caricature by revealing the diversity of the crews of merchant vessels. The number and variety of the seafarers who made up the crew of any deep sea vessel are much richer than just Jack Tar.
Continue Reading...
Shipmasters
Of all the men who worked on merchant ships and whose Crew Agreements are stored at the Maritime History Archive, shipmasters left behind the most information. While individuals aboard ships are notoriously hard to find without a ship's official number, masters were important enough to be tracked by both the Board of Trade and Lloyd's, the insurance underwriters. The Board of Trade kept records of their successful examination and of their service, so from these records the researcher can see the ships they served on, their official numbers and years.
Continue Reading...
Dead Men do tell Tales
At 6pm on Christmas Day, 1866, a 32-year-old Norwegian man named Frederick Brown succumbed to dysentery, a disease which he had contracted during the Sir Henry Lawrence's time in Calcutta. When he died, his shipmates sewed his body in canvas and buried him after a brief two and a half hours, likely because he died in the heat of the Indian Ocean, only 6° south of the equator. Frederick died with no possession and was in fact in debt to the ship, having taken an advance of his £2 and 10s wages when he joined the Sir Henry Lawrence in November.
Continue Reading...
Crew, But not Regular Seafarers
In the Maritime History Archives' Crew Agreements and Logs there are people who family researchers might not expect to find. These "strangers to the sea" were people employed in non-traditional occupations. Some were emigrating from their homeland working their passage.
Continue Reading...
Naval Connections
In other section of this website you learned that, for centuries, merchant seamen manned British commercial shipping vessels. Here you will discover that, in wartime, the use and methods of deploying merchant seamen changed.
Continue Reading...
What's the story of port life
Many coastal communities were once important ports for the surrounding countryside. With the exception of large, centralised and modernised port authorities, however, today these waterfronts now only hint at the active role they played in international trade and seafaring labour. With the rise of steel and steam – diesel – technology, the size and speed of ships increased and the number of vessels needed to move cargoes decreased, meaning fewer ships lying in port.
Continue Reading...
