Thank you very much! Is there a specific site I need to look at for crew lists and info on individual sailors? How do you know she was # 6 ?
Kooky
As Merchant Navy Central individual Personal Records were not kept between 1857 and 1913, the only way to search for your ancestors seagoing records is to trace him via Crew Agreements.
Your starting point. Crew Agreements for the year 1861 are stored at NMM Greenwich
http://www.rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum/caird-library/crew-lists-agreements-official-logs-request-formOr better still a visit.
TNA Kew have about 10% for those years but MUN in Newfoundland has 90% 1863 -1974 and you can look at some of their data base on line.
https://www.mun.ca/mha/NMM Greenwich holds Years ending in "5" together with most 1861 and 1862. As well as the 10% mentioned, TNA has Crew agreements from both world wars. Some Crew Agreements especially early ones are held at Local Records offices.
If Necromancer has the correct vessel, her Official number is 27848. This a unique number to that vessel no matter how many changes she had as long as she remained on the British Register.
As far as I am aware only Crew Agreements for the years 1881 and 1915 are available on line.
The "CLIP" project via FindMyPast has various Crew Agreements 1861-1913 on line but is far from complete. Did a quick search on FindMyPast, plenty of John Bushalls etc. You would have to do a through search from 1861-1913.