One obvious implication of the introduction of certification of merchant officers, was the right of the state to withdraw these from officers who had acted unprofessionally. Accordingly, as of 1850 under the auspices of the Board of Trade, local Marine Boards have held investigations into damages to and losses of vessels. (When further legislation brought engineers into the system of certification, they too became subject to the same procedures.) Anyway, if initial investigations indicated fault of officers, full and formal enquiries could be and were held. However, the legislation in which the Local Marine Boards were operating under allowed a great deal of leeway and advised that only the worst breaches should result in prosecution.

Additionally there was parliamentary papers emanating from the Board of Trade, dealing with marine casualties. Some of these were statistical abstractions, but others gave more detail.

There was also a highly important ‘moral’ aspect to the legislation of 1850 and after. Drunkeness, which might well have been covered relating to matters above, was regarded as a crime in itself. So, too was ‘tyrannical’ behaviour towards crews and passengers. These were, theoretically at least, punishable too by suspension or cancellation of certificates. Conviction ashore of criminal offences seems also to have later automatically incurred immediate loss of tickets.

Held by the Guildhall Library, in the City of London, is a collection of records known as ‘confidential circulars’. The actual forms are headed ‘Confidential Reports from Registrar General of Seamen’ and in fact are ‘Black Book’ entries transmitted to Lloyd’s (of London) by the R.G.S.S. Nominally these cover between 1900 and 1946. However, there are comparatively few of these and most years are not represented at all. Nevertheless, there is a relatively large percentage for the First World War period within these.

In both collections there are a variety of offences shown. As well as professional negligence and incompetence, there are a great many relating to drunkenness, a lesser number to assault and a relatively small number for other criminal offences such as murder and rape. It should also be noted that there were whole classes of new criminal offences in wartime (especially under the oppressive Defence of the Realm Act, 1914).