1874 Death Question

[K Cowie]

I have a copy of a 'Register of Accounts of Wages and Effects of a Deceased Seaman' from 1874 (which I have attached) and I am hoping someone can give me some general information:

1. As you will see there is a column entitled 'Effects how Disposed of'. The person I am interested in has what I think is 'Supt' in that column. Can anyone tell me what this might stand for?
2. The person I am interested in has a place name in the 'Place of Death' column. Does this just mean this is the port the ship was in at the time or does this mean that the person was onshore.
3. My final question - what would likely have happened to the body of the deceased. I'm assuming that it would not have been brought back home to the UK on the ship, so was it put overboard and buried at sea or given that fact it appears the ship was in port, would they have been left/buried at the port?

Many thanks in advance for any help you can give.

[Louis the fly]

May be able to help a little. The Supt. is Superintendent of Shipping, a shore based position.
I would have thought the place of death would be recorded as the ship the person was serving in at the time.
As there was no means of refrigeration the deceased would be buried at sea unless the ship was close to port. In this case the body would be taken ashore to be buried.

[cappy]

May be able to help a little..

got a copy of one of these reports for a family member ....basically just gave name of dead... age.... rating ....name of ship... date date of death and..... drowned .......fell overboard .....the shipping office of the port were the death was recorded has a superintendant of shipping who duly logs the death etc.....cappy

[j.sabourn]

In the 50"s and 60"s that is the 1900"s, and not in the 1800"s, it was an unwritten law of the shipowner that all natural deaths on board would be buried at sea, this was for commercial purposes, you will never see this in writing. However it was the inconvenience of taken a body into port and being stuck in quarantine for an unspecified period, and was for the good of cutting back on loss of earnings for the ship. It was also usual to enter the Lat. and Long of the person buried at sea, don't think this was compulsory as an approx. position would do. Knew a master who told me he buried someone up the Persian Gulf, the canvas wasn't weighed enough and came back to the surface and had to stick a boathook in the canvas to let the air out and fill with water for it to sink, must have been embarrassing. Whoever sewed him up should have lost his bottle of rum, but by that time would have been too late, as he probably drank it before he started on the canvas job. As for disposal of body if ashore I had a cousin who was drowned when coming back to the ship in Sheerness, his wife refused to come down from the NE to identify the body, so they contacted me, I was in Plymouth and about to sail for the Meditteranean with the RN. I had another cousin who lived in London who went and identified him. All the formalities were taken in hand by the Missions to Seamen. They did and hope they still do a lot of good work apart from their grab a granny nights. JWS

[Louis the fly]

I remember the case in the Gulf John refers to. It was later found the guy in the canvas bag was attempting to jump ship after falling in love with an Arab flip flop seller. Everything was going to plan when suddenly a boat hook skuppered his dreams.

[j.sabourn]

That must have been another one Louis . The serang on one ship I was on his brother on another ship the kalassis decided to do away with him and sewed him alive in a sack and threw him over the wall. The serang I had was going the same way and received the same threats and used to be my shadow. Jws

[Gulliver]

I remember the case in the Gulf John refers to. It was later found the guy in the canvas bag was attempting to jump ship after falling in love with an Arab flip flop seller. Everything was going to plan when suddenly a boat hook skuppered his dreams.

Yes Louis those Arab flip-flop sellers were buggers for that kind of thing. And those boat hooks could be exceedingly sharp as well. I once had to apply very quick first aid to staunch a gushing pierce wound to the chest of a motorman,stabbed by a flailing boat hook from another Chinese crew member whilst coming alongside in a lifeboat. He survived,and he certainly owes me one.We think it was an accident......Memories,eh?

[Louis the fly]

Yes I agree, after this more conventional methods were adopted for jumping ship such as walking down the gangway. The use of canvas bags fell out of fashion.

[j.sabourn]

Nowadays they are frightened to leave the ship in case there is no job when they come back. Obviously there is a time difference in old and more modern day methods of shipping and job allocation. Believe it or not the discipline without logbook entries is more severe today than it ever was. Jws

[K Cowie]

Thank you to everyone for your replies - and a few chuckles along the way!

You have confirmed what I had thought might have happened but good to get it all confirmed from people who know far more about the workings (and the unwritten rules/laws) of the MN.

Many thanks.