NFLD-ROOTS-L Archives

Archiver > NFLD-ROOTS > 2002-06 > 1024037159


From: Len Seymour <>
Subject: [NF-ROOTS] ("Closed" Ship's Registry) Ships & Seafarers
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 23:45:59 -0700
References: <1bd.475984e.2a394e64@aol.com>


Hi again, Jack,

You were correct in your assumption that "closed" meant termination of the
record. The record, in this case is the vessel registry.
Shipping registries were first introduced in Britain with the Navigation
Act of 1786 which required shipowners of the Empire to register their
vessels with the customs officer in their home port. In Newfoundland, the
registry
port was St. John's, Indicated by the "S" in the registration number.
Contained in the registry was information on the owner and statistics on the
vessel. The following information was also included:

1. Year registered

2. Official (Registry) Closure year:
The year in which the registry was officially closed. Most often, this was
the year in which the vessel actually went out of service, but occasionally
the registrar lost track of a vessel, especially the small coasters. In some
cases, this resulted in an entry such as 'Lost per annual list 1868.' The
year 1868 represented the year of official closing and was entered here.

3. Reason for closure:
The reason given on the registry for its closure. In some cases, however,
the registrar neglected to enter this. Most registries had the reason filled
in, either from information on the registry or from other sources. The codes
used were as follows:

01 No longer Exists/No Information Available
02 Sold to Foreigners
03 Transferred to a New Port
04 Registered de novo
05 Condemned/Condemned as Unseaworthy
06 Condemned and Broken up
07 Condemned and Sold
08 Condemned, Repaired and Sold
09 Wrecked
10 Burnt/Destroyed by Fire/Blown-Up
11 Abandoned at Sea
12 Lost at Sea
13 Broken Up
14 Wrecked and Sold
15 Stranded
16 Dismantled and Sold as a Hulk
17 Collided at Sea and Sunk
18 Blown Out to Sea/Cast Away
19 Foundered at Sea
20 Lost at Sea and Restored to Registry at a New Port 21 Lost at Sea
and Re-Registered
22 Missing/Not Heard of Again/Disappeared
23 Wrecked and Restored to Registry
24 Sunk
25 Lost per Annual List
26 Omitted per Annual List
27 Supposed to Have Been Lost/Lost Many Years ago
28 Condemned and Transferred
29 Seized/Captured
30 Worn Out
31 Sold to the King.

Most of these codes are self-explanatory, but a few require some
elucidation. Code '01' indicates that there is absolutely no information on
the reason for registry closure. Codes '25' and '26' mean much the same
thing.

4. Place of closure:
The place where the action that lead to registry closure occurred.

5. Actual closure date:
This gives the actual date when the registry was closed. However, if the
actual date (as opposed to the official date) of closure was not known, ACSP
researchers adopted a method of estimating the actual date. The mean
registry life for such tonnage class in each decade, with vessels
transferred and registered de novo excluded, was used.

I hope this helps.

Len

Jack wrote:

Hello again, Len Seymour.

In the context of Ships and Seafarers, a phrase appearing often is "closed
in (year)." If I had to guess, I would interpret this as the termination of
the record maintained by someone (whom?) for a given ship -- analogous to
decommissioning of a Naval vessel. But I don't like to guess if there is a
way to get the truth. Would you please enlighten me?

Jack HULL



This thread: