England Records of the Royal Navy - International Institute

Records of Royal Navy Ratings
A summary of the main available records in date order is shown below; consult Rodger for a more extensive survey. For an exciting account of a search for an ordinary sailor from family legend to facts read Baskett (From Trafalgar to Guadeloupe: Unravelling a Seaman’s Yarn. Family Tree Magazine Vol 17 #9, page 51-52).

CHART: Royal Navy Records for Ratings

Engagement Books and Registers
Continuous Service Engagement Books 1853-1872 and Registers of Seamen’s Services 1872-1923

From 1853 new recruits, and others who transferred to the new system, were issued unique continuous service numbers. Thus for those whose service started after 1853 or extended past this date this is the easiest place to start the search. Continuous Service Engagement Books are in ADM 139 and the Register of Seamen’s Services in ADM 188. There are, comprising indexes for 1853-1872 and the records starting at from 1853 to 1896. When using the indexes be aware that there are three series, 1st with plain numbers, 2nd (numbers prefixed A) and 3rd (numbers prefixed B). The records include each sailor’s date and place of birth, physical description and outline of service including ships served on.

Once you have the name of a ship, then you can work backwards and forwards from that date from the Muster Rolls. For Ratings serving only before 1853 it is more difficult to find which ships they have served on, but this information may have been passed down in the family orally or by means of photos or other artefacts. Further details can be found in The National Archives (TNA) leaflets: M31 Royal Navy: Ratings Service records 1667-1923, and M34 Royal Navy: Ratings Entering Service between 1873 and 1923.

Ships’ Musters
Each ship’s company was listed and from 1764 give the name of the sailor, age on boarding, place of birth, and whether pressed into service. Complex columns record his service together with pay and deductions for food and services on board until a pay period, usually three or six months or a year, ended. Once a ship’s name and a date are known then one can work backwards and forwards from that point, with transfers to and from other ships being noted in the records. However, men came and went from ships in several different ways:


 * Turned over to another ship.
 * Lent for a period to another ship but may be kept on payroll of his regular one.
 * Left behind on land if sick.
 * Deserted, indicated by R (Run). 
 * Plenty of men died in this hazardous occupation and would then have the notation DD in the muster, meaning Discharged Dead.
 * Discharged (D) on land. When his money ran out he typically found work at the same port but not always on the same ship. He may have been employed by:
 * The same captain on another ship.
 * Another ship at the same port.

Search the Naval List Books to find what other ships were in port at that time.

Sadly, almost all ship muster records created between 1878 and 1919 were destroyed during WWI. Two series of Admiralty Muster Books are on film so far:


 *  ADM 36
 *  ADM 37

There is increased collaboration between the TNA and the FHL at present so we can expect more coming through the pipeline.

CHART: Extract from Ship’s Muster Roll of the Victory (1805) Vertical columns have been converted into rows to fit the space available here, and ditto marks changed into data.

Books and Certificates
Ships’ Pay Books

Pay books were kept separately from the musters and recorded the payment of wages. A little more information may be available than in the musters themselves, and from 1765 there are indexes called alphabets. A full set of these for one man gives a good record of his career.

Description Books

Some musters include physical descriptions of the men from about 1800, kept in order to identify deserters and the dead.

Certificates of Service

From 1802 synopses of each seaman’s career started to be compiled from the ships’ pay books by the Navy Pay Office. There are few for ratings before 1834 and were used to support applications for:


 * Pensions.
 * Medals and gratuities.
 * Greenwich Hospital admissions. 
 * Greenwich Hospital School admissions for his children.

Details can include:


 * Full name 
 * When and where born. 
 * Description-height, complexion, hair and eye colour, marks.
 * Current ship, and date of entry and rating on it. 
 * Date of volunteering for Continuous Service (from 1853), for how long, and his register ticket number.
 * Date of badges. 
 * Date of certificates, or class as seamen gunner. 
 * Former service-ships’ names and dates and whether Royal Navy or Merchant Service.

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