Discharge Certificates
Contrary to
popular belief discharge certificates were issued far earlier than 1854. In an
effort to check desertion the first experiments in legally sanctioned discharge
certificates are mentioned in legislation of 1729. ‘Masters of vessels
proceeding to parts beyond the seas were then required to enter into Agreements
in writing with their seamen and it was provided that a seaman should forfeit a
month’s pay if he left his ship before he had a "discharge in writing from
the Master"....’. However, there was no requirement for masters to issue
written discharges until 1795, but only for those involved in the West Indies
trade.
Moving on, in
1835 Section XIII of An Act to amend
and consolidate the laws relating to the Merchant Seamen of the United Kingdom,
and for forming and maintaining a Register of all the Men engaged in that
Service required discharge
certificates to be issued to merchant mariners by masters. These were to
specify ‘the period of service and the time and place of the discharge’ and
masters were liable to a penalty of £25 if failing to comply.
In 1844,
courtesy of the ‘General Merchant Seaman’s Act’, the thirteenth section
dictated that at the end of voyages mariners would have their register tickets
returned to them and receive their pay as well as certificates of ‘Service and
Discharge’. Under Schedule (E.) of this Act these were to take the following
form:-
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THIS is to certify, That ................whose Register Ticket is numbered .................served as ..............on board the .......................of the Port of ...................of the Burden of........... Tons, from the...... Day of.................... to the ............Day of .................... and that he was discharged from the said Ship on....................... at......................... ...Dated this Day of 184 . ......................................................................Master. |
From 1854 the
system was more complicated. For the coastal trade ‘E’ forms were used; for men
of foreign-going vessels discharged in the U.K. there were ‘E-1’ forms; for
those discharged in foreign countries there were ‘C.11’ forms; but those
discharged in the Colonies there were ‘C.C.5’ forms. (This would seem to
indicate that there had also been earlier discharge certificates of some kind
issued abroad as well.)
Anyway, in
time these were added to and there were slight changes in format. By the 1890s
‘Dis I’ forms were in use and there were various versions of these. However, as
of October 1900 individual certificates began to be replaced with Books of
Continuous Service. Also, contrary to popular belief (as internal Board of
Trade correspondence shows) these books were not mandatory in the early part of
the 20th century and only appear to have become so in 1918.
As a point of
interest, a notice issued by the Ministry of War Transport seems to indicate
that during the Second World War (after the introduction of the Central
Register of Seamen at least), books of continuous discharge and service were
retained ashore: presumably at requisite Mercantile Marine Offices. This may
explain occasional wartime errors and omissions in mariners’ discharge books.
(See TNA: PRO MT 9/4210)
Click the icon
below to see an example of a discharge certificate (E-1).
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Having previously served on board Royal Navy vessels, William Scott, then signed on for a number of voyages on auxiliary steam-powered vessels of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, in 1853-54. See relevant Crew Lists and Agreements |
I am indebted
to Kenneth Scott of Dunedin, Florida, for allowing me to use this image. For
those interested in learning more of this mariner’s career, there is a website
dedicated to him at:- http://www.kenscott.com under the ‘Sailing
Career of William Scott b.1833’.
Click the icon
below to see an example of a Book of Continuous Service, giving details of a
‘Seaman’s Record’ and certificates of discharge. Please note, as this is a
relatively modern example, information such as next of kin and national
insurance number has been electronically erased (for these purposes).
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Whilst these pages show this merchant mariner as a cadet, Keith Langridge went on to become an acting 2nd Engineer. By this time, the early 1970s, it was becoming difficult for certificated officers to get berths and the British Merchant Navy can be seen as being in an advanced state of terminal decline. It was then that this particular officer ‘swallowed the anchor’ (came ashore to work). |
I am indebted
to Keith Langridge, for photographing his discharge book, along with other
records (not used here).
The source for
the earlier history of discharge certificates came from a Board of Trade
Precedent Book (TNA: PRO BT 167/1 pp.1-2).
Go to the Central Index Register c.1919-1941
Go to the main Mercantile Page