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Archiver > Mariners > 2000-12 > 0975953563


From: Tim Latham <>
Subject: Re: [Mar] Master Mariner Yachtsman
Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2000 18:12:43 +0000


I've just been reading a book called "The Custom of the Sea" by Neil
Hanson. It is about the misadventures of an Essex mariner who was involved
in the Victorian yachting scene as a hired hand on the some of the racing
yachts of the 1880's. There is quite alot of description of how hands were
recruited by the wealthy owners of the yachts, and what was involved in the
work. Essentially, seamen were hired for a summer's work on yachts,
initially recruited from personal recommendation, the best rising to skiper
the yachts. During the winter the hired hands returned to their more usual
trade, as fishermen, merchant marine or ferry men.

The mariner in question, Capt. Dudley, was eventually hired to take a yacht
out to Australia, sank off Africa, killed and ate one of the crewmen in the
lifeboat to avoid starvation, and subsequently was the focus of a landmark
trial that outlawed this "custom of the sea".

Tim Latham



At 14:40 30/11/00 +0000, nlas.newman wrote:
>Hi All,
>
>Didn't do too well with my last posting, so hoping to do no worse with
>this one!!
>
>We're trying to trace a possible relation, William HEATHER, who appears to
>have been born c.1841 in Gosport, Hampshire, and is variously Mariner,
>Yachtsman, Master Mariner and Master Mariner(Yachtsman). These
>descriptions are from various Parish Registers and the 1881 Census -
>Master Mariner first appears about 1885.
>
>My questions are: I'm presuming that 'Master Mariner' is earned by
>examination or similar, so are there records kept somewhere to which one
>can refer? Is the Yachtsman title a separate qualification, or simply a
>description? What type of vessel would be classed as a Yacht in the
>1880s, particularly needing a Master Mariner Yachtsman on board? Any
>ideas of records that I could search to find yachts that he's served
>on? We've also details of a son of his who put his occupation in 1893 as
>'Yacht's Cook', which leads me to believe that we're not thinking of 35
>foot cruising yachts!
>
>Any ideas, suggestions etc would be most appreciated; anyone with any
>family connections equally so!
>
>Regards,
>
>Nigel Newman
>Gosport, Hampshire
>(visit our website at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~newmangosport)
>
>
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