Deaths of Mariners at Sea (along with Births, Deaths and Marriages of Passengers)
Already stated in the page on
ships’ official logs, through the Mercantile Marine Act of 1850, these were to be kept by masters. Amongst the information to be recorded were deaths of mariners onboard. In 1854, through the Merchant Shipping Act, further entries in logs and additionally within crew-lists and agreements were required of masters: for births, marriages and all deaths onboard.However, the Seamen’s Fund Winding Up Act of 1851 and which came into force in 1852 required on the death of crew members including apprentices, that their ‘Clothes and other perishable or saleable Effects’, as well as any other money due to them in wages or otherwise, to be auctioned by the relevant master mariners and the proceeds sent to the Board of Trade in London (via Shipping Masters, Customs Officials, or Consular Officials). Presumably, this was for onward transmission to their widows, or families. This system was administered by the office of the Registrar General of Seamen. The ledgers used for this were especially printed and used when the Act came into force in January 1852, giving all salient information, including amount of monies received. They were also separately and neatly indexed by men’s names: from 1855 also by ships’ names.
Totally separately, the Passengers Act of 1855 demanded not only that masters produce lists of passengers on vessels leaving the United Kingdom in duplicate (one copy which was to be kept by Customs Officers), but also that relevant officials, whether Shipping Masters, Customs Officers, or Consular Officials be informed of births due to and deaths of passengers. It was then these shorebound officials’ duty periodically to inform the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages in London of these occurrences. Another section of the Act also dealt with the deaths of incomers: those from outside Europe and the Mediterranean. Complicating matters was a different Act in Scotland, of 1854. This required ships’ masters to inform the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Edinburgh, by post, if ‘any Child of a
Scottish Parent’ was born onboard British vessels and similarly, if ‘any of Her Majesty’s Scottish Subjects’ died onboard British vessels.It is not unlikely then that this was judged unwieldy and the Registrar General of Seamen took on the responsibility of informing the Registrars of Births, Deaths and Marriages in both London and Edinburgh, in an ‘administrative agreement’. This would explain the form which the registers for the first four decades took, inasmuch as even the headings were written up in long hand and whilst indexed, these were internal and less than well thought out.
In the absence of any written evidence (so far found) I am of the opinion that this was a duty taken on for other reasons as well. It was not even until 1874 that it became a legal requirement for the R.G.S.S. to be informed of births, deaths and marriages at sea, even although they had been making note of these events since 1854. And, even with a number of reorganisations, both types of records continued to be separately kept well into the 20th century. This again points to these records being kept for differing reasons and under differing Acts of Parliament.
It should be noted that the details of a great number of deaths appear never to have found their way to the civil Registrar Generals of England, Scotland etc. A fair proportion can be seen as having got as far as the office of the R.G.S/R.G.S.S. but did not get any further. Yet more did not even get to London in the first place. On the subject of these latter disparities in reporting, these
may in my opinion, have come from Shipping Masters not fulfilling this duty in part. After all, these were not main-stream civil servants in the vein of the Civil Service Commission of 1855 (‘liberally’ educated in the classics, Latin and ancient Greek, with a zealotry to maintaining paper empires ‘under the rules,’ but ignoring everything else outwith). I can think of a number of traits which could account for non-compliance, including incompetence and downright sloth.
On a practical level, as already intimated the records dealing with deaths of mariners
should be easy enough to use. These are to be found at The National Archives, Public Records Office, Kew and as original ledgers. As a point of interest, the records dealing with passengers are also at the P.R.O. Until 1890 these are in microfilm form, whilst after that the original ledgers are to be seen.
However, there are exceptions to my point on the ease of use of these documents and this is not only in my opinion, but also of other researchers. The early indexes to the Registers of Wages and Effects of Deceased Seamen (for the 1850s) simply do
not tally with actual surviving registers in places. This is rather perplexing, but it may be that these indexes were used for more than one series, which can be seen in other records occasionally. Secondly, there is a significant hole in the actual registers relating to the wages and effects of these hapless mariners during the 1880s. Thirdly, and potentially this is very important, I have found that the alphabetical indexes for those in the first and second decades of the twentieth centuries contain not insignificant omissions. Therefore, to be safe researchers should physically check every month in the annual registers.
There is also potentially another way of finding of deaths at sea. This is through the marine registers of the General Register Office, at the National Archives Family Records Centre, Islington, London. However, it would appear that these were exclusively compiled from the information supplied by the R.G.S./R.G.S.S. Interestingly, these begin in 1837 (for reasons not yet uncovered by this author) and continue through to 1965.
From the late 19th century through to the mid 20th century the State was concerned at the apparently high level of death among stokehold ratings. Among the voluminous evidence within Board of Trade precedent books, there are some useful reports and returns regarding named individuals. In TNA: PRO BT 167/72 there is a very small number of reports on individual suicides between 1889 and 1907. In the next volume, TNA: PRO BT 167/73, there are a number of tables relating to deaths in stokeholds and men missing presumed dead variously from 1892 through to 1900. These name some men. In later precedent books, TNA: PRO BT 167/121 (1913 to 1925) and 122 (1925 to 1940) there are registers of deaths of firemen and trimmers. These can be useful in getting additional information, such as the temperature in the engine room at the time of death.
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