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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While 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