Merchant Navy Service Records
The records for Merchant Navy personnel are essentially divided into two main sections namely officers and seamen. The following comments relate to researching Merchant Naval personnel and are not entirely comprehensive as they are a summary of the available material.
Merchant Navy Officers
Before 1845
Alphabetical Register of Masters 1845 - 1854
Voluntary Examinations 1845 - 1850
Certificates of Competency and Service 1845 - 1921
Fishing Officers
Engineer Officers
Cooks Certificates
Post 1910 Records
Lloyds Captains Register (1851 -1947)
Merchant Seamen
Merchant Navy Officers
Before 1845
Before 1845 there was no systematic recording of officers (masters and mates). There may be records that incidentally mention them but the greatest success is likely to be for masters of vessels since their names may be recorded with records relating to vessels.
Alphabetical Register of Masters 1845 - 1854
During this short period of time an Alphabetical Register of Masters was compiled. This like the Seamens' Register was based upon Crew Lists.
Voluntary Examinations 1845 - 1850
After 1845 a system of examination for Masters and Mates was introduced. These exams were voluntary and applied to vessels going overseas. During this period Lloyds started listing those men who had passed the examinations.
Certificates of Competency and Service 1845 - 1921
The examination system introduced in 1845 became compulsory for Masters / Mates of foreign-going vessels. There is various genealogical data about the men who passed these exams and it includes name, date of certification and voyages. The post 1888 volumes do not contain voyage data.
Fishing Officers
The system relating to Masters and Mates was extended to include the Certification of Fishing Skippers and their Mates (or second hands). These records commenced in 1884.
Engineer Officers
The Certification of Engineers started in 1862 and they could qualify under either examination or length of service.
Cooks' Certificates
Surprisingly even Cooks had to qualify after the Merchant Shipping Act of 1906. The Cooks could qualify either via examination or length of service and their registration documents have survived.
Post 1910 Records
From 1910 a combined index to Masters, Mates and Engineers of merchant vessels and Skippers and Mates of fishing vessels was started. It was intended to replace the separate registers held to that date. The term "index" is slightly misleading as the records were not references to other documents - it is more of a system of cards.
Lloyd's Captains' Register (1851 -1947)
Lloyd's complied from the Certificate Records for Masters of foreign-going vessels a register called the Captains' Register and these contain useful genealogical data on the Masters.
Merchant Seamen
Until 1835 the government took little interest in merchant seamen. For seamen between 1747 and 1857 only the fragmented Muster Rolls (of merchant vessels), apprenticeship papers, papers in private collections and newspapers that may contain data on their career.
In 1835 the government's interest in merchantmen was raised as they were seeking to monitor a potential reserve of sailors for the Royal Navy. A result of this was that the government started to compile records on ordinary seamen. The main series of documents were the "Ships' Agreements and Crew Lists" which were used to generate the Registers of Service.
There are 4 series of Registers of Seamen and they cover 1835 - 1836, 1835 - 1844, 1845 - 1854 and 1853 - 1857. In 1857 the Board of Trade abandoned the Seamen's Registers and from 1857 to 1913 no register of ordinary seamen was kept.
For the period 1857 to 1913 those seamen not in possession of a Certificate or Competency of Service can be researched via Crew Lists but this is a time consuming process.
From 1857 to 1913 no central register of seamen was kept by the Government so Crew Lists provided the principal means of recording information about seamen. In 1910 an advisory committee to the Government suggested the creation of a new centralised register and a new register was opened in 1913.
The Fourth Register was started in October 1913 and continued until 1941. Unfortunately access to the full details of seamen born less than 100 years ago is restricted. The entries for 1913 - 1918 were destroyed so in reality the register covers 1918 - 1941.
A Fifth Register was created in 1941 and records details of seamen who were paid by the Government to remain in the Merchant Navy Reserve Pool. This Reserve intended to ensure that there would be sufficient seaman to man merchant vessels. This Register ran until 1972.