Hi, to all who have looked at the ?
I went to the NA at Kew today and have, more or less, found the answers.
There is a 'crib sheet' entitled 'Merchant Seaman: Interpreting Voyage Details etc'.
So the interpretation is:-
1) C stands for Captain. For others researching this topic, other abbreviations are:-
CfM Chief Mate (Chief Officer/2nd in Command/Keeps the 0400/0800 watch)
2M Second Mate (2nd Officer/1200/1600 watch)
3M Third Mate (3rd Officer/0800/1200 watch)
M Mate (same person as Chief Mate)
E Engineer
2E 2nd Engineer
Please note that all the Mates are Navigating Officers responsible for getting the vessel from port to port, hopefully without incident. They also keep the corresponding night watches.
2) 62(Liverpool) does represent the port of departure.
3) The date could be either, depending on the record.
4) 62(Liverpool), the port of arrival and the voyage number.
5) 'BLACKALLER'. The name of the vessel.
I asked about Lloyd's List or Lloyd's Register of Shipping and was directed to the bookcase immediately behind, and to the right of the 'research enquiry desk'. There I found the 1st relevant copy dated 1835, the next being 1840. (Not sure whether 1836 to 1839 are housed at the Guildhall Library). As my ancestor served on both the 'Blackaller' and the 'Rapid' I was able to find a record of both vessels in each and subsequent years. Each record has the name of the vessel and type, the name of the Master (Captain), the tonnage, where and when built, the owners, the port of registry (which is extremely relevant to further records) and the classification for insurance purposes.
I was then advised to research BT98 where, once you know the Port of Registry, you can find the Agreements and Crew Lists relative to that particular vessel, in my case 1835/1844,
Exeter is the P of Reg so the reference is BT98/251 for the 'BLACKALLER' AND BT98/254 for the 'RAPID'. These are original records, so as I'd run out of time, I'll have to visit Kew again in the spring.
Hope this is of some help,
Regards to all,
Davecigar
