Discharge Book numbering from WW 2 to 1972 for British seamen

[Captain Kong]

My Number, R576086 was issued at the Vindicatrix, 6 June 1952
I had three full discharge books all with the same number to 1994

[John Arton]

Kieth
Re. I.D. cards only been valid for a certain distance from a port.
This is actually true. For instance in Japan you are supposodly not allowed to travel out of the prefecture that the ship is docked in.
When customs and Immigration clear the ship inwards and check passports etc. they are not allowing crew members free rein to travel anywhere in the country that you are berthed in. I believe 25 miles is an arbitary figure put upon seamens travel from their ships to allow them some freedom. Remember that with mixed crew even in the old days, some nationalities would have required a visa to enter a country. Even if a U.K. seaman has a C1/D1 US Visa I think I am correct in saying it does not give him the freedom to roam the USA, only the right to join and leave his ship and he must depart on that ship when it leaves port.
Although many people think the USA has harsh immigration officials and laws, they at least do have immigration officials unlike here in the U.K. wher I can only remember seeing one on one occasion and that was when one of our Filipino sailors jumped ship.This is where I learnt that even in the U.K. foreign nationals not holding a EU passport zrriving in the UK as serving seamen, do not have the right to roam all over the U.K. unhindered and are restricted to an area of 25 miles around the ship. Given our mixed (legal and illegal) population I frankly cannot see this ruling ever been enforced.
rgds
Capt. John Arton (ret'd)

[David Williams]

Hi There.
My number was R583900,and was issued
late in 1952.
Dave Williams(R583900)

[David Snook]

Thanks to everyone who contributed. I think that I've made some sense out of it although it looks like most of the R 400000 to R 500000 range wasnt used. Perhaps there was a fire at the printers. ( Thanks again to Stuart Henderson for pointing this out)
This is my understanding of the number of new British entrants for various periods.
Years No Range APPROX new entrants/year
1927-32 R 35000- R 110000 15,000 ish
1932-40 R 110000- R 217000 12,000 ish
1940-48 R 217000- R 400000 22,000 ish
avoid R 400000-R 500000 range
1949-59 R 500000- R 710000 20,000 ish
1959-72 R 710000- R 910000 16,000 ish

Its my understanding that when the discharge book was completed then a replacement was issued was issued using the same number. There could have been a problem if the book had been lost, the number forgotten, and a replacement was needed.
Thanks again to everyone who contributed.
David Snook

[Bev Summerill]

My no R754471 issued Avonmouth(or Bristol) Aug 1960

Bev Summerill

[Ewen Cameron]

Mine was R697320 Issued North Shields 14 April 1959.
Regards
Ewen Cameron BP Apprentice.

[happy daze john in oz]

Mine issued December 1960 Vindicatrix 737787

[iain campbell]

mine is r901708 joined 69 70

[Mike Hall]

This post has been interesting reading.
I very often fill in the registration numbers that are missed out on the crew listings,
however this is not always easy with a name like smith,where there are thousands.

If it helps i have just researched another persons number in a seperate post it is as follows
R 403740 P HODGES 23/09/1931 WELLS SOMERSET
Also if mine were to help R 693816 AUGUST 1958.

You could also visit the www.allatsea.cx site
and at the top of the main page click onto the "times of our lives",then cursor down to "mug shots".
there you will find registration numbers of all the eras including lots that begin with a "4"

Hope this is of some use.

Regards
Mike

[Tony Morcom]

I've missed the info somewhere Mike. Where do you actually find the numbers? Is it in N.A. or somewhere else