'R'

[Ivan Cloherty]

My Dad's first ship as a Deck Boy was the LLanstephen Castle in March 1922. His Cert. of Discharge number was 1071065. No letter prefix.

There is another number for ' Master' 108050

William Joseph Hartley - Master of Rescue Ships, ' Copeland' and ' Goodwin'

I have found 2 more Discharge Papers.
1. ' For a seaman not discharged before a Superindentent of a Mercantile Marine Office'
Issued when he was 2nd mate on SS Rockabill on 21;12;34 in Waterford, Eire

2.' For a seaman discharged before a Superintendent or a Consular Officer'
Issued when he was 1st Mate on RS Beachy on 11 ;01; 41 in Glasgow ( date the Beachy was sunk ) Obviously the Discharge book survived along with him !
So, why did he need these extra papers?

Regards
Bren Shackleton

Hi Brenda

Don't know when the "R" prefix was introduced, but they were in existence in 1927 when my father Ivan Cloherty R96096 first went to sea.

In your 1, sometimes paper discharges were issued when the Dis A book was not available, or he may have been travelling as a supernummary, I know when travelling as a Supt, I was issued with a paper discharge because I had a Discharge book, but entries could not be made in the actual book, another one of those wierd rules

Your 2, his Dis A book may not have survived, or if it did, it may have been recovered later, or the Dis A book you hold may be an official replacement, you always retained your original number

Not much help just a train of thought

Ivan

[Brenda Shackleton]

Thank you, Ivan.
His Discharge book is definitely the original, with all sorts of dated stamps.
regards
Bren Sh.

[Hugh]

When seamen first began to be numbered and registered in the late nineteenth century it is presumed their Dis A numbers began with 0000001, certainly they reached 1000000 by the middle to late 1920's. At this point a new series of numbers was issued to new entrants with an 'R' prefix, and when these had all been issued they began again with a 'UK' prefix. So when researching a seaman it is important that his full discharge number is quoted as it is possible for seamen from different times to have the same numerical identity. For example 151230, R151230 and indeed UK151230.

As Mike has also stated other prefixes were also used to denote nationality.

Regards
Hugh

[Gordon Turnbull]

Bumping up as I just got home last week and was perusing my old books. Now, a strange thing. My new book was issued on 9th November '72. I joined the Bridgepool on the 20th and signed on and off on my old style book, but, without any copy of report or character. So the books were in use in '72 but for some reason mine was not used until Jan '73 on the Summity. Strange.

[Louis the Amigo]

Hi shipmates' I got the two kinds The one full of DRs and V.N.Cs. and the new one spotless

[Ray McCerery]

First DB R700943 issue Jan 59 Tilbury
New Book R700934 issue Nov 72 South Shields
continue book R700943 RSS Cardiff 91

From 72 all new entrants were issued with dis book prefix UK

From 2005 all new entrants were issued with dis book DB + Number

Anyone employed on a British company entitled to a seaman's discharge book regardless of nationality.

Ray

[Lou Barron]

what i eould liketo know without bragging is there any living member alive on this site with a discharge book with a number on or before my number R227743

[DeepSea]

From 72 all new entrants were issued with dis book prefix UK

Not according to these entries at the link below. R & UK were both being issued to new entrants in 1973

ALL AT SEA - Men of Steel 1970's & 80's

[Gordon Turnbull]

Think the guy with R901.... in '73 might be mistaken as to his dates. Mine is as you can see R909 and that was early '72.