Information Contained in the Database

1.Disclaimer ~Whilst great care has been taken to ensure accuracy of the data, no guarantees can be given, researchers should check the source documents for themselves at West Glamorgan Archives
2.Data ~ The purpose of the database is to permit a search on the Mariner's name without initially knowing which ship they were engagend on.
Where there is no information available, the database field displays a hyphen.
3.

Mariner's Name ~ In order to provide a comprehensive record of the mariner, his name may appear more than once, either because he has
the same name as another mariner, he was on more than one ship or more than one voyage in the same ship. His name and the details of his
previous ship have been interpreted from either his own signature and handwriting, that of the shipping agent or British Consul. It is therefore
prudent to approach the search on a "Soundex" basis. Either use the A-Z alphabetical menu to browse through the surnames or use some
or all of the search boxes for forename, surname and shipsname by partially entering the name(s) required.
e.g. To find "Jonathon Davies" enter Forename "Jon", Surname "Dav" . This will result in all names beginning with those three letters being
displayed, which is particularly helpful in finding names that ar often recorded with a different spelling. The above example will display the
variation of Davies or Davis. If one knows the ships name is for example "Delaware" include "Del" in the shipsname box.

4.

Ranks ~Equivalent ranks are Mate, 1st Mate or Only Mate , Engineer, Chief Engineer or 1st Engineer. Cert-Nil means that a certificate is not indicated in the records. R.N.R. indicates Royal Naval Reserve number, shown as RV2 in early archive crew lists. DBS means Distressed British Seaman given passage home after a shipwreck or sickness. A.B. is Able Seaman, O.S. is Ordinary Seaman. Apprentices have all their entries commencing with the starting date of their indenture and not the commencement of the voyage.This is to ensure that the whole period of their apprenticeship is shown and not just the previous ship or voyage.

5..Year of Birth ~ is calculated from information given by the crew member at the time of signing on. One should approach this information in the same way as that recorded in a census, ages can be in error by as much as 5 years.
6.

Place Names ~ Addresses, dates, ports of engagement and discharge are interpreted from entries made by the shipping agent or British Consul.
Place names of the same name such as Newport, Newquay, St Johns and Yarmouth are inserted without a County or Country unless
there is a clear indication as to their origin.

7.

Voyages ~ These are compiled from the crew engagements and when available from log books. Voyages should therefore be viewed
with caution. Dates of arrival and departure at foreign ports are not always accurate, the information taken from consular endorsements
or crew changes. Home trade around the British Isles and the Continent of Europe often give ports of call without any dates of arrival/departure.
Where dates are not available the database field displays a hyphen. Positions in Latitude and Longitude are taken from the ship's log.

8. Remarks ~ This column is an abbreviated version of events. Full details are recorded in the back pages of the crew agreements and in log books. Some entries have been recorded in more detail under the web page "Captain's Log"
9. Completed Years ~ Voyages ending in the year 1862 to 1897 are complete. Now indexing 1898. A few records later that 1897 have already been included. Crew Agreements held at the National Archives under BT98 series for 1834-1845 completed now indexing 1845. Crew agreements archived at West Glamorgan archives relating to ships from other ports of registry are available at www.mariners.org.uk.
10. West Glamorgan Archives ~ holds an estimated 20% ACLs for Swansea and Port Talbot for the period 1863-1913. Log books, journals and
letters, etc. are sometimes filed with the crew agreements. The records are arranged first by year then by ship's official number. It is necessary for a
researcher to know the name of the ship in order to find a crew member. There is a card index of ships,ship's masters and shipowners in the research
room, as well as a catalogue showing for what years they have crew agreements for a particular ship. A database of crew members for 1881
has been compiled by CLIP. A summary of the records is to be found on their website.in the Guide to Collections
11.Ships Register ~ Selecting Ships Register will display all the ships, not only those linked to the crew agreements, updating this register is ongoing.
The complete Register is held at West Glamorgan Archives Ref. No. D/D PRO/RBS/S, records the periods from 1824 to 1897.

Records 1862 to 1897 are complete - Indexing has now started for 1898.
Records at the national Archives under BT98 for 1835-1845 completed.

A Guide to selecting Data ~ Crew Members
1

Select mariners by using their Forename, Surname or Shipsname or a combination of all three. However the names have been interpreted
from the crew's own signatures, entries written by the ship's agents or Consuls. Therefore exact spellings cannot be guaranteed. It is best
to treat the search on a "Soundtext" basis and use either an initial letter or a number of letters and browse forward or backwards through
the database. For example if one is looking for Charles Davies onboard the Emily Ann, search using Ch in forename box, Dav in the
surname box and Emily A in the shipsname box. This covers entries such as Chas for Charles, Dav for Davies or Davis. Using Emily
 on its own would bring up ships Emily Ann, Emily Jane and Emily Waters.

2 The database will initially display a table of up to 25 entries, and will include Forename(s), Surname, Rank/Certificate No; Year of Birth,
Place of Birth and Shipsname (6 fields of data in all ) commencing with the letter(s) selected from A-Z or from the letters or name entered
3 At the bottom of each group of 25 entries it will indicate how many entries there are in the selection. e..g. 25 out 78.You can alter the
number of entries to be displayed in the box on the right. The word "Next". Click on this word "Next" to display the next 25 or the number
per page you requested, within the letter(s) or name chosen. This and subsequent pages also show the word "Previous" and "Next" Keep browsing forwards or backwards through all the entries clicking on "Previous" or "Next". The last entry for the mariner with the same name displays only the word "Previous".
4

To display the full details of the mariner's engagement in a separate window, click on either the forename of surname. This will display a new
window containing 19 fields of data, starting with the first entry in the database with the same name. Again if the mariner is listed more than once,
either because he has the same name as a different mariner, is on more than one voyage for the ship or on more than one ship, the word ""Next"
will show at the bottom of the table, subsequent entries will show "Previous" and "Next" which will permit you to browse through the same
number of entries as in 3 above only this time it shows the full 19 fields of data.

A Guide to selecting Data ~ Ship's Registry, Ship Owners and Ship's Voyages
1

Select ship's name from the right hand side of the table. The list is made up from ships contained in the main database assigned to the Mariner.
Click on the name, a new window will appear which will will contain data of the ship's register. This data is limited, but will be continually updated.
2

In this new window, two icons will be displayed below the registry (1) "Open - Voyage records from agreements and log books"
and the (2) "Open - Records of the ship owners listed in the ship's registry" Click on these links and a new window will open which
can be scrolled, showing all the voyages or shipowners from data collected at the present time.

3 At the end of the voyage or shipowners window one can return to the registry, from which one can return to the main database once more.