In 1845, a system of voluntary examinations for Masters and Mates of British foreign trade vessels was introduced by the Board of Trade. The Mercantile Marine Act of 1850 required examinations for all appointed Masters or Mates to be compulsory. Men newly appointed and passing the examination were granted Certificates of Competency. Masters and Mates who had already been serving in that capacity on foreign going vessels before 1 January 1851, and who were able to satisfy the Examining Board that they were suitably experienced, were granted Certificates of Service. In 1854 the new Merchant Shipping Act made compulsory the requirement for certification of masters and mates of home trade vessels also.

Lloyd's interest in the holders of Certificates of Service and Competency extended only to the effect upon their insurance assessment of vessels or cargo - for further explanation of this see the guide to Lloyd's List (M.Palmer) on this site.

The Registrar General of Shipping & Seamen made available the lists of successful candidates (and earlier, of those men awarded Certificates of Service) to Lloyd's of London who used the information to compile their own registers of certificate holders for use in risk assessment within the insurance world. Their primary interest was in the Masters of foreign-trade vessels, and there are almost no records of smaller home-trade vessels such as fishing boats, small coasters and similar craft. (See the Mariners guide at http://www.mariners-L.freeserve.co.uk) for further help on tracing such home-trade Masters and Mates)  The original registers are held in the Manuscripts section of the Guildhall Library and are available for searching. Note however that these large volumes are becoming increasingly fragile and permission to photocopy may not be given. It is wise always to assume that the records will require transcribing by hand.

In general, the information contained within the registers for each man remains largely the same from the commencement of the registers (1869) to the final series in 1947 but the presentation varies with different colour codes, typeface and symbols. Many of the registers have been filmed, and a key is available at most archives holding the filmed copies. It must be borne in mind when photocopying the registers that unless a colour copier is available, vital information may be lost if you do not mark photocopies at the time of transcription with the relevant coloured pencil. When working from the original registers, coloured pencils may not be used and searchers are advised to decide in advance on a suitable method of distinguishing between red, blue and black entries. It is as well to note here that although much of the series is readily available on film, the filming of many of the registers has been done in such a way as to render them almost if not quite illegible. The fault lies within the filming, and the originals are perfectly clear.

The entries are largely alphabetical but searchers must be aware that entries may be both misplaced (out of alphabetical order) or added at the end of the letter section in separate folios. The information available for each man is as follows:

Name
Place of birth
Year of Birth
Date of first Certification
Place of Award
Certificate number

In addition, searchers may expect to find the date of engagement for each voyage, (and in certain series the equivalent date of discharge), the name and official number of each vessel, the general geographical area to which each voyage was destined, and finally any relevant notes relating to casualties (which in maritime terminology generally means accidents and mishaps to the ship not to the person) plus anything else good or bad, which might be seen by members of the insurance world as potentially affecting the risk assessment.

The first register was produced in 1869 - the only one to have been printed. (This is freely available at many maritime archives and the fiche version may be purchased at reasonable cost). This contains the details and engagement for all voyages dating back as far as 1851 in some cases for only those men who were actively in service in 1869. There are in fact a very few examples whereby the details of men who had died earlier than 1869 still appear in the register - this appears to have been due mainly to the confirmation of the man's death not having reached the Registrar General of Shipping & Seamen in time to stop the transmission of details to Lloyd's of London. They have therefore been included by accident and not by design.  Ship names appearing in italic typeface denotes those voyages for which the man served as Mate. Ordinary type denotes an appointment as Captain.

The second series is dated from 1869 to 1893, with one column per year, and with each volume covering five or six years' service.

Italics are not used in this series. Instead, an underlined ship name indicates a voyage as Mate, no such underline indicates a voyage as Captain. Black ink denotes the engagement on a voyage, red ink denotes the subsequent discharge, with any notes in blue ink. It must be noted that engagement as Captain on a voyage does not necessarily mean that all subsequent voyages on that vessel were also in the capacity of Captain and great care must be taken when transcribing or marking up copies. In addition, a man might be engaged as Captain for a long period on one vessel, but having gained an appointment on a larger, more prestigious ship or one travelling to a significantly different geographical area may have been required to serve a period as Mate. It did not necessarily (and generally did not) suggest a demotion of rank for any other reason.

The third series is dated from 1894 to 1911.

In this series, black ink now indicates an appointment as Captain, red ink as Mate, and blue ink was used for notes. It is important to remember that in this series, the dates of engagements are shown but no dates for discharges.

The fourth series dates from 1912 to 1947

Note that if a man did not take up an appointment as Master during this period, no entry was recorded. Men who passed the examination but served only as a Mate are not included in this series. It must be noted that this series comprises two different registers, both of which may require searching in order to locate an entry but entries for any one man appear to be confined to one register only.

In conjunction with this series is a card index covering the same period containing details of those men who, although in possession of a Certificate of Competency, served only as Mate. In this index, those entries shown in red ink now denote service as Mate, and an underlined ship name denotes the lower rank of Second or Third Mate. Any notes are shown in blue, and the dates given are only of engagements, not of discharges.

The final series is another card index dating 1932 to 1947 containing the details of those men awarded Certificates of Competency but who did not serve as either Master or Mate. The Guildhall Library warns searchers that this series appears to have been systematically weeded and if an entry is unexpectedly missing then this possibility should be borne in mind.

The whole series contains many abbreviations. As noted previously, a key is often available and always so when searching the original registers at the Guildhall Library. For those who can only view the filmed copies, the following abbreviations are the most important:

Concerning the qualifications of individuals:

Ex - Extra Master (in order to pass the examination for Extra Master, a far greater depth of knowledge in the subject of navigation was required)
F&A - Qualified as Master on fore-and-aft rigged vessels only.
Stm - after 1874, qualified as Master of a steam ship
A printed Crown symbol denotes that the Master held the position of an officer in the Royal Naval Reserve.

Geographical destinations are also abbreviated. The most frequently found will be A- West Coast of Africa; Aust - Australia and New Zealand, B - Baltic; Cp - Cape colonies; EI - East Indies; M - Mediterranean; US - United States; WI - West Indies. The notation Ct refers to vessels in the coastal trade, which for these purposes extended from the British Isles to ports in Belgium, Holland and France from the Elbe to Brest. Note that most cover a general area of sea or coastline, and not a particular port or country. Finally, the notes may be in coded form relating to a report of an incident in the printed newspaper, Lloyd's List. The abbreviation 'Inq' indicates that there was an official Board of Trade Inquiry into the particular incident and further details may be available either at the Guildhall Library or at the Public Record Office.

For further reading and a fully detailed explanation of these and other abbreviations along with the Guildhall Library's document reference numbers, see the Guildhall Library leaflet "Lloyd's Captains' Registers at the Guildhall Library and Related Sources Elsewhere' available from the Manuscript section, Guildhall Library, Aldermanbury, London EC2P 2EJ

Debbie Beavis

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