I am afraid that no central Merchant Navy personal records were kept between 1857 and 1913. The personal records for the period of the first world war have been destroyed.
I take it that it is your man who died of pneumonia whilst on board the vessel ABYSSINIA in 1883.
You can back track via crew agreements to find all of the vessels he sailed on but it can be a long and expensive procedure, not least because most of the crew agreements are stored in Newfoundland.
Search via ships official number for ABYSSINIA this would be 63765.
MHA have a good research service and it should tell you on the crew agreement the name and official number of his previous ship.
https://www.mun.ca/mha/holdings/viewcombinedcrews.php?Official_No=63765 Crew agreements for years ending in "5" are stored at NMM Greenwich and some 10% of all crew agreements at TNA Kew.
By back tracking you should with a little luck be able to find all of the vessels he served on
