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 the Glamorgan Archives Cardiff.
2.Data ~ The purpose of the database is to permit a search on the Mariner's name without knowing initially 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 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 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 crewlists. 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 ~ Indexing has just began for unregistered ships in the port of Cardiff for 1863 to 1913.
10. Glamorgan Archives ~ holds an estimated 80% ACLs for Cardiff for the period 1863-1913. Log books, journals, etc are sometimes filed with the crew agreements. Records are arranged 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.- DPROCA/C
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 Register of Ships for Cardiff, greater than 15 tons burthen, are held at the Glamorgan Archives for the period 1824 to 1994 - DRBS/C/1-2