Originally Posted by
Ivan Cloherty
His service books will not show what ports he visited, it will only show
1.Name of vessel, its port of registry, official number, and NHP/BHP
2. Port and date of joining vessel
3.Port and date of leaving vessel
4. Trading limits FGN (anywhere in the world twixt nominated north and south latitudes) HT Home Trade (between Elbe and Brest. Sometimes MT which were extended HT limits usually only as far as Santander in Bay of Biscay.
5 Ability normally VG (Very Good) DR Declined to report (Bad) VNC Voyage Not Completed (could be a number of reasons, hospitalised, died, etc etc)
6. Conduct, same as 5
7. Master' signature and Shipping Master's signature, or ENG2 in lieu of latter if no shipping office available.
You'd get the same entries whether on a one week voyage or a two year voyage, as in my time and your father's vessels trading FG signed 24 month Articles, but the voyage didn't necessarily last two years, longest I did was 22 months, ports visited would have filled a book.