This is a brief guide to researching records of officers in the Merchant Navyterm for ships that transport cargo or passengers during peacetime and are auxiliaries to the Royal Navy in times of conflict. Until 1845 there was no system of registration of merchant navy officers, so records which might incidentally make mention of them must be used to trace them. After 1845, there are alphabetical registers and registers of certificateslistings of certificates awarded to merchant seamen for passing exams or for long service which might help. You might also find information about the officer by searching the records of ordinary merchant seamen.
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What do I need to know before I start?
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Try to find out:
- the dates during which the officer served
- the name of his ship
- his ship's official number (obtainable from the Crew List Index Project)
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What records can I see online?
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Second World War Medals (1939-1945)
Search and download (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.) records of World War Two Medals issued to Merchant Seamen (BT 395).
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What records can I find at The National Archives at Kew?
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Alphabetical register of masters (1845-1854)
Consult the alphabetical register in BT 115 which was compiled from crew listslists of crew members filed by ships' masters with the Registrar General of Shipping.
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Registers of certificates of competency and service (1845-1921)
Look for a certificate entry in the registers. Microform registers of certificateslistings of certificates awarded to merchant seamen for passing exams or for long service are in the following series:
- mastersmaster - captain of a merchant ship; same as master mariner - it has different meanings in the Royal Navy or Royal Marines and matesmate - ship's - chief or first: officer in charge of the day-to-day running of the ship: BT 122; BT 123; BT 124; BT 125; BT 126; and BT 128 (index in BT 127)
- engineers: BT 139, BT 140 and BT 142 (index in BT 141)
- skippers and mates of fishing boats: BT 129 and BT 130 (index in BT 138)
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Merchant Navy gallantry awards for the Second World War (1939-1947)
Search the Catalogue by name of person or ship in T 335 to find what the award was, the person's rank at the time, and the ship they were serving on.
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Chronological registers of the issue of certificates (1913-1984)
Consult registers and renewals of certificates of competency of mastersmaster - captain of a merchant ship; same as master mariner - it has different meanings in the Royal Navy or Royal Marines and matesmate - ship's - chief or first: officer in charge of the day-to-day running of the ship in BT 317, masters, mates and engineers in BT 318 and fishing officers in BT 396.
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To access these records you will either need to visit us, commission research (£there will be a charge) or, where you can identify a specific record referencea unique set of letters and numbers identifying a document in The National Archives, order a copy (£there will be a charge).
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What records can I find in other archives and organisations?
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Registers of certificates of competency and service (1845-1921)
Apply for a copy of a certificate from the National Maritime Museum's Caird Library - you will need the certificate number.
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Agreements and crew lists (1861-1994)
Look at the websites of other archives and organisations which hold agreements and crew listswritten agreements regarding conditions of service and crew lists filed by ships' masters with the Registrar General of Shipping, including the Maritime History Archive in Newfoundland, the National Maritime Museum, the National Archives of Scotland and Ireland, and local archives.
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What other resources will help me find information?
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Websites
Visit the Crew List Index Project (CLIP) website, which has information about merchant seamen on British registered ships from 1861 to 1913.
Search indexes to crew lists from 1861 to 1913 by name on findmypast(£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.).
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Books
Read My Ancestor was a Merchant Seaman by Christopher and Michael Watts (Society of Genealogists, 2002).
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Merchant seamen serving up to 1857
Merchant seamen serving 1858-1917
Merchant seamen serving after 1917