Researching relative in the Merchant Navy 1914-19

[soldier75]

Hi,

I have a Great Uncle who served in the Merchant Navy in the Great War, I know he was with the White Star Line for most of his career and amongst other ships served on the big four of that line. I have downloaded his CR 10 Identity Cert from Findmypast with his details on, although there are various ships mentioned (using ships No;s), but they are all post war starting in December 1918. I know he was on the Brittanic as a Quartermaster on the day she sank, this is backed up by an article in the local newspaper at the time and he is mentioned in the crew list of that ship on the official website.

My question is this, not knowing anything about tracing Merchant Seamen, where should I look to get a definitive list of all the ships he served on if this does exist.

I was told by my father that William, the Great Uncle, was torpedoed three times in the Great War and would like to find out more if I could.

Advice please Many thanks

H

[seaJane]

Can't say for certain, but this link may help http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/merchant-navy.htm

[Tom Wales]

One possibility is to obtain Crew Lists (or relevant page) for each ship and work backwards in time. Each Crew List shows the name of the ship previously served on so if you know the last ship you may be able to work back from there. Follow this link for what is on Crew Lists and where you might find them. http://www.crewlist.org.uk/index.html

it can be a bit of a jigsaw puzzle if there are gaps and you may have to make some educated guesses if you do not have the last ship (unless you know for sure that the last ship on the CR10 was in fact the last ship sailed on.) If he worked mostly for White Star that should help to narrow the search. One long shot , if he was a regular employee, is to try and see if the shipping company records are in an archive anywhere.

The Crew Lists may also have details of major incidents provided documents were not lost with the ship. There are also casualty registers at Kew which contain some details of sinkings (sorry I've not got the file reference to hand but one of them is NID Form 1a if that is any use)

Good Luck

Tom

[soldier75]

Hi,

Seajane and Tom, thanks for the help and assistance. Will keep on digging.

Thanks again

H

[bigbill]

Thanks Librarian, I've now got my grandfather's and his elder brother's cards.

[seaJane]

Always happy to help!

seaJane

[bigbill]

In case you are wondering - I've just realised that I should have put my post in the other forum re National Archives - (and I'm walking about amongst the rest of of you.........).

[seaJane]

Happens to the best of us...