The Mercantile Marine Act of 1850 required ships’ masters to also keep a log book to record events on board a ship, which included seamen’s conduct. The list was kept on board and then sent to the Register Office of Merchant Seamen, the central administration office of the Merchant Navy, on the ship’s return to Britain. This was simply a record of the total number of crew (known as a muster roll), but it evolved into what are known as crew lists and agreements. You should not expect to find any detailed accounts of day-to-day life or the activities of crew or passengers.īetween 1858 and the First World War, the Merchant Navy did not keep registers of its seamen, so crew lists and agreements are the only records you are likely to find of an individual merchant seaman during this time.įrom the mid-18th century, masters or owners of most British-registered merchant ships were required to keep a record of their crew before the ship left port.
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