Maritime death - BT344 record box 0070

[Newlogs612]

Hi can anyone advise me on this.  I have located what i believe may be an ancestor who died onboard "Berwick Castle" in January 1917.    On FindMyPast the records shows the details came from BT334 box 0070 which I understand to be in the Archives office Kew.

I wish to order a death certificate for this person but it does not give "GRO" reference nor does it state whether death was "England and Wales" or "Overseas".

Anybody have any good suggestions ?

[julia_pse]

I've just had a look at the National Archive site, and BT334 is: Registry of Shipping and Seamen: Registers and Indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths of Passengers and Seamen at Sea.  It does say that you can look at images of it online, but I can't work out how - I'm just getting sent round in circles.

I had an ancestor die at sea in about 1920, and had this book out when I was at the Archives - fascinating reading!

The info you need to get a death cert is in the book, but when we got that through it didn't tell us any more than we had found out already from the book.

I'll go and have a look through my computer and see if I have photos of what we saw.

Edit for my awful typing!

[julia_pse]

Looks like I can only put one pic in each message due to size, but they are one of each side of the book.  My ancestor was at the bottom of the page, but you can see the columns headings here to see what you would get.

[julia_pse]

Hope that is useful to you.

[julia_pse]

PS:  I think you have to order it as an overseas certificate from the GRO.

[Newlogs612]

Julia thats fantastic thank you !  I had no idea that information would be accessible. 

I have had a look on line too and like you I cannot figure out how to view the records.  A trip to London is a big ask so I may call them to ask for assistance on viewing online.  I'll post if I get anywhere.

One again thanks for sharing !

[julia_pse]

No problem - it was our (me and mum) first visit to the archives, so we'd expected to just have a bit of an orientation day, and not really find anything concrete, so to be able to just browse through that huge book looking for our man was a fabulous experience.

I'm glad it helped you, and do let us know how you get on with getting help navigating their online records.

[seaweed]

As far as am aware BERWICK CASTLE did not suffer enemy action in January 1917 so your ancestor must have died of natural causes or as a result of an accident. Unless there was a doctor on board to certify his death, then there would be no Death Certificate as such.
  If he was living in England and Wales, GRO would have details contained in the Marine Register Book (not overseas deaths) this information was normally taken from the vessels Official Logbook.  It would be basic details which would be similar to the info  contained in  BT334/71 Death at Sea REGISTER 1917, not BT334/70  Deaths at Sea INDEX. The info on FindMyPast is from the Deaths at Sea INDEX  The document shown by Julia is from the Deaths at Sea REGISTER.
If the cause of death is contentious or you wish to further investigate the circumstances surrounding his death you would have to look at the vessels official Logbook. This will be stored at Kew in piece BT99/3330. Official number of BERWICK CASTLE 114822.
Note. If he died ashore ie. in hospital, this should be recorded.

[Newlogs612]

Thanks for clarifying and additional pointers.  Much appreciated.