Hello Freebee,
All depends on what years you are looking at. There are no copies of actual Discharge Books, but records known as CRS10 service files detail the same information found within a Discharge Book.
MERCHANT NAVY SEAMAN'S SEA SERVICE RECORDS
1999 - 2002 Sea Service Records
The MCA at Cardiff is able to provide details of a merchant seaman's service for the above years. This information is taken from the ships official logbooks and crew agreements on which the seaman sailed. There is a charge of £11.00 per logbook to extract this information, the details of which are then included on a Certificate of Sea Service in respect of the seaman. Further charges are made for additional information and these are listed below.
1973 to 1999 Sea Service Records
This MCA at Cardiff is not able to supply information concerning the sea service details of individual Merchant Seamen from 1973 to 1999. After 1973 the Registrar General was not required by legislation to keep these records.
1941 to 1972 Fifth Register of Merchant Seaman's Service
These records are held at The National Archives in classification BT 382. The Fifth Register of Seaman’s Service 1941 to 1972.
Records of individual Merchant Seamen's sea service details are held in alphabetical surname order. These details include the following information: Name of seaman, Date and place of birth, Discharge (Seaman’s) book number, Rank, Details of the ships on which he served. These include:
Name of ship and official number, date of engagement (Joining ship), Date of discharge (Leaving ship), whether ship was a foreign going of home trade vessel, and records in some cases National Insurance contributions. Details shown in these records are similar to those contained in an individual seaman's discharge book.
1913 to 1940 Fourth Register of Merchant Seaman's service. (Please note these records actually start from 1919 as all WWI records were destroyed)
These records are available at The National Archives and are held on Microfiche in the following classifications BT 348: Register of Seamen, Central Index, Numerical Series (CR 2), BT 349: Register of Seamen, Central Index, Alphabetical Series (CR 1) and BT 350: Register of Seamen, Special Index, Alphabetical Series (CR 10). These three classes were combined in one classification namely BT 364 Register of Seaman, Combined Numerical Index (CR1, CR 2 & CR 10) and were made up by extracting combinations of cards from the other three classes.
The original records for the above named classifications are now held at the following address: Southampton Archives, Southampton City Council, South Block, Civic Centre, Southampton, S014 7LY. This office is open Tuesdays to Fridays 9.30am to 4.30pm, with one late evening opening each month. There is no charge for a personal visit. Alternatively enquiries for information from the records may be made by post, e-mail or fax but there will be a charge for this.
1854 - 1856 Third Register of Merchant Seaman's service
This register of Merchant Seamen service was opened in 1854. This was arranged in alphabetical order and contained the following details of seaman: age, place of birth, details of voyage, including name of ship and port of departure. In 1856 it was considered that the obligation to maintain a register of seaman was satisfied by the crew list and the register was closed.
The records of this are held at The National Archives in the following classification BT 116: Register of Seamen: Series 111.
1845 - 1854 Second Register of Merchant Seaman's Service
The Merchant Shipping Act 1844 stipulated that every British seaman should have a register ticket. The details given when applying for a ticket were: Name, Date and place of birth, Date and capacity of first going to sea, Capacity since: any Royal Navy ship served in, and capacity; Present employment at sea, home address.
These records are held at The National Archives under the following classifications: BT 113: Registers of Seaman's Tickets. (1845-1853), in Certificate number order. BT 114: Alphabetical Index to registers of Seaman’s Tickets. BT 115: Alphabetical Register of Masters Tickets.
1835 to 1844 First Register of Merchant Seaman's service
The registration of seamen was introduced by the Merchant Shipping Act 1835. These records are held at the Public Records Office under the following classifications: BT 120: Register of Seamen Series 1. (1835-1836). These records are arranged alphabetically. BT 112: Register of Seamen: Series 11 (1835-1844). BT 119 Alphabetical Index to Seamen. This index provides the registration number of the seaman.