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Help Reading Seaman Record Please!


harvey20

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One of my ancestors, William Henry Carbines, served in the Navy. I have his seaman record and am struggling to interpret it. Any help would be much appreciated.

Harvey

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The records I have seen for seamen I have researched all mention HMS Victory. It refers to shore training establishments amd/or holding barracks at Portsmouth.

Lots of good stuff online about RN shore establishments - e.g. http://www.gwpda.org/naval/rnshore.htm or http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123

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HMS Excellent - shore training base

HMS Vivid - Devonport base

HMS Kinfauns Castle (I think)

Collier (Lobelia II)

Ratings vary from seamn to leading seaman

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So, HMS Kinfauns Castle, I'm guessing, refers to the ship and HMS Excellent and Vivid are both training bases. I know that William was on HMT Lobelia II (trawler) because he died when it hit a mine on the north coast of Ireland in 1917.

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Kinfauns Castle was an armed merchant cruiser from 5/8/14 to 16/9/15.

Excellent was a training establishment for gunnery.

The last line on the part of the service record that you have attached reads;-

Colleen [Lobellia II]. Colleen was the naval base at Queenstown [Cork].

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Thanks, that is really helpful.

Any idea what this might read? - under 'remarks' in seaman record

Am I right in thinking that it says that William went from St Ives to the USA and returned back in 1913?

Harvey

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First attachment.

RV6 St.Ives 1/9/13.

Went to U.S.A.in 5/1910.

Returned 17/8/13.

6159/15/2/15.

W.H.Carbines A?? reconsideration of decision of 1/9/13 re forfeiture of retainer.

Recommended by C.O."Kinfauns Castle" 16/2/15 with RV2.

His Commanding Officer is recommending the paying of his R.N.R. retainer payment which was forfeited for the three years that he was in the U.S.A.

Second Attachment.

This is the payment of money in two stages which was paid to those who served at sea during WW1. In this case it was paid to his widow who had re-married by the second payment.

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This is a record of a voyage he made dated 22/5/14 to Cowes as an Able Seaman [AB] in the Merchant Service.

The first column gives the name & registration number of the vessel, & the second is the nature of the voyage which I can't decipher.

Could you please enlarge the part which gives the name of the vessel as this registration number is missing from the ship index.

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So does this mean that William went on a voyage in May 1914 on HMS Kethailes to Cowes in the Isle of Wight - how long would the voyage have been? Would it have been part of his job or for the Navy?

Harvey

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Thanks for the information & link.

Kethailes was not hired by the R.N. until 23/9/14 so it was still a private yacht at the time your relative was on board doing his job as an AB in the Merchant Service.

I take it you realise that this is an R.N.R. service record we are looking at.

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Yes, I did know that this is a RNR service record.

One last thing - what should I make of this? Can I do any further research from these numbers?

Harvey

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