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Family History - Merchant Navy

2K views 12 replies 10 participants last post by  Ron Stringer 
#1 ·
Hi All

I am trying to find out more about my late father who served onboard a ship in the 1960's called the British Beacon. This is based on a picture that my sister has and a family "legend". Can anyone help me to search for details of this vessel?

Much appreciated

John Nicholson
 
#7 ·
British Beacon

John,
Welcome to the site. If you type in British Beacon in the search box in the gallery you will find a few other pictures pictures of the Beacon on this site.
I joined the Beacon on her maiden voyage in October 1959 as a 2nd trip apprentice & stayed until July 1960. Was your father aboard during this time? The picture that your sister has was taken during the time I was serving on her. In what capacity was your father serving? I may have known him.
Kind regards,
John F.
 
#10 ·
Gratitude

Thank you all for your help. I am eternally grateful. You have been very helpful . John F, my father's name was John Herbert Nicholson and he was from Hetton Le Hole, near Sunderland. I believe that he served in the boiler room as a stoker, but this is based on very sketchy family knowledge. He may not have served during the early years, but you never know...

Thanks to everyone again for your help. Do you know where I can get a list of crew records for the British Beacon?

Regards

John Nicholson.
 
#13 ·
Crew Lists & Ships' Logs

John Nicholson said:
Do you know where I can get a list of crew records for the British Beacon? John Nicholson.
You can find most of the records of British ship's logs and crew lists in the Maritime History Archive of the University of Newfoundland. They do not have records for years ending in '5' e.g. 1955, 1965 and so on which were retained in the UK National Archive at Kew.

The Maritime History Archive have a website http://www.mun.ca/mha/index.php where you can see the various listings of records that they hold and the services that they provide. If you are not able to attend yourself, on receipt of a list of ship names (and official numbers if you have them) and the dates concerned, they will look up the information and send it to you by airmail or surface mail, as you request.

The information is free but the services of their staff to research it for you from the records is not! Their research fees are based on 1 hour to complete a search of 2 years of crew agreements for 1 vessel (or 2 vessels for 1 year). If there is a log book accompanying a crew agreement the number of copies for each voyage is usually around 40 although there could be more for the 1950s and 1960s.

Be prepared for a big bill if there are many ships and many voyages. I was quoted over £400 for the ports of call and crew lists for the 6 years I was at sea. The contact address is

Heather Wareham, Archivist
Maritime History Archive
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's, NL
A1C 5S7

Tel: (709) 737-8203
Fax: (709) 737-3123

Good luck,

Ron
 
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