Records of officers
The first register of officers was an alphabetical register of masters created in 1845. This is in series BT 115
and covers the period from 1845 to 1854. Also, from 1845 a voluntary system of examinations was introduced for masters and mates of foreign-going vessels. Records of these Certificates of Competency and Service can be found in a miscellaneous series in BT 143, the volumes of which are indexed.
Later Certificates of Competency and Service are arranged in six series according to the type of certificate and type of trade. There is a name index to all of these series of certificates in BT 127. The index provides details of place and year of birth and certificate number.
BT 122 Competency: Masters and Mates, Foreign Trade from 1845 to 1906.
BT 123 Competency: Masters and Mates of Steamships, Foreign Trade from 1881 to 1921.
BT 124 Service: Masters and Mates, Foreign Trade from 1850 to 1888.
BT 125 Competency: Masters and Mates, Home Trade from 1854 to 1921.
BT 126 Service: Masters and Mates, Home Trade from 1854 to 1888.
BT 128 Competency: Masters and Mates, Colonial from 1870 to 1921.
Lloyd's arranged the information in an alphabetical sequence of masters' names, known as Lloyd´s Captains' Registers. They were compiled from 1869 in manuscript, but the earliest sequence also contains summaries of qualifications and service dating back to 1851 of masters still serving in 1869. These were cut from an original printed register of 1869. An incomplete set of Captains' Registers can be seen on microfilm.
Certification of Engineers began in 1862: they could obtain their certificates by examination (Certificates of Competency) or by exemption due to long service (Certificates of Service). They can be found in three series, the indexes to which are in BT 141. The details give place and year of birth as well as certificate number.
BT 139 Competency, Engineers from 1861 to 1907.
BT 140 Competency, Engineers, Colonial from 1870 to 1921.
BT 142 Service, Engineers from 1862 to 1921.
An Act of 1883 extended the competency examination system to the skippers and mates (also called second hands) of fishing boats. The means of reference to these is BT 138. The entries give a man´s place of birth and certificate number.
BT 129 Competency: Skippers and Mates of Fishing Boats from 1880 to 1921.
BT 130 Service: Skippers and Mates of Fishing Boats from 1883 to 1907.
An Act of 1906 extended the competency system to cooks, beginning in 1908, but we do not hold these records. The National Maritime Museum hold registers relating to ships´ cooks from 1915 to 1958.
From 1910 there is a combined index to masters, mates, engineers, skippers and mates in the series BT 352, covering 1910 to 1969. The records are microfiche copies of the card indexes, which recorded the issue of certificates of competency to officers engaged in both home and foreign trade. The cards recorded the name, date of birth, place of birth, certificate number, grade, date of passing and port of examination for each certificate obtained.
The system of recording the issue of certificates changed around 1913 and records can be found in series BT 317 Registers of Masters and Mates Certificates, Passings and Renewal, covering 1913 to 1977.
Disciplinary Proceedings
Some register entries may have the annotation ´BB´ followed by a number, this stands for ´Black Books´ and means disciplinary action was taken against the certificate holder. The Black Books are actually the Precedent Books, covering 1851 to 1893, in BT 167/33-36, indexed by BT 167/37.
