Mariners-L Archives

From: "Debbie Beavis" <>
Subject: [Mar] Merchant Seamen Deaths at Sea
Date: Sun, 3 Oct 1999 01:09:37 +0100

MERCHANT SEAMEN WHO DIED AT SEA

Debbie Beavis


The following information may be of interest to those who wish to trace
the death of a merchant seaman at sea. Some of the records mentioned
also include marriages of merchant seamen at sea which do not appear in
the GRO Marine Registers.

The General Register Office's Marine Registers record deaths at sea on
ships registered in Great Britain or Ireland from 1 July 1837. These are
available through LDS libraries everywhere. The IGI covers events 'at
sea.' Less well known however are the records held at the Public Record
Office in Kew, England. If the name you are seeking does not appear in
the Marine Registers of the GRO, then you should consider a search in
the records held at Kew. The PRO records may record additional
information of use to the researcher.

They are held in the following series of records. Note that many of
these registers have been filmed and may therefore be available through
your nearest LDS library.

1. BT153 Registers of Wages and Effects of Deceased Seamen 1852-1889

Registers for 1852-1866 show the following:

name
ticket number
date of engagement on this vessel
place, date and cause of death
name and port of registry of ship
master
date and place of payment of outstanding wages
amount of same and date of receipt by Board of Trade

Registers for 1867-1889 also include:

age
rating
official number of vessel
voyage details

This class of documents is separately indexed in two ways
alphabetically by seaman's name in BT154, or by ship name in BT155.

2. BT156 Monthly Lists of Deaths of Seamen 1886-1889

These records show:

name
age
rating on board
nationality/birthplace
previous address
cause of death
place of death
ship's name, o.n and port of registry

3. BT157 Registers of Seamen's Deaths Classified by Cause 1882-1888

This is indexed according to cause noting specific illnesses or
accidents and gives the information shown in BT156 with the addition of
information about the last voyage and may contain additional information
in the column marked 'remarks.'

4. BT159 Registers of Deaths of British Nationals at Sea 1875-1888

These registers also include deaths of passengers.

5. BT334 Registers and Indexes of Births, Deaths and Marriages of
Passengers and Seamen at Sea, 1891-1972

In an ideal situation, all these entries should appear in the GRO Marine
Registers but in practice there are many omissions as records were not
always forwarded. The GRO Marine Registers themselves began much earlier
than the BT records mentioned above but again there are many omissions
in the early years. It will be seen therefore that in order to search
for a record of an event at sea, it may be necessary to search all of
the above sources.

Finally there is also a class of miscellaneous returns at the PRO:

4. RG32 General Register Office: Miscellaneous Returns of Births,
Marriages and Deaths.

These record births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials of British
subjects, nationals of the Colonies, Commonwealth and countries under
British jurisdiction, on British and foreign ships.

These records are available on film, are indexed in RG43 also filmed,
and may therefore be available through the LDS library system.

This is just an overview of the most likely sources for locating
information of events at sea. You may wish to view the information and
on-line leaflets at the PRO's website http://www.pro.gov.u

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• [Mar] Merchant Seamen Deaths at Sea by "Debbie Beavis" <>