Researching my great-grandfather, William Harbinson

[John McDonald]

One of my great-grandfathers, William Harbinson, was a merchant seaman in the early 20th Century and I'm trying to learn more about him. He was my father's maternal grandfather and as far as I know, he lived from 1874 to 1926. William Harbinson and Margaret.jpgWilliam Harbinson photo portrait by J.E. Reeves, 48 & 50 Hermit Road, Canning Town.jpgWilliam Harbinson Teutonic Payslip.jpg. He was an electrical engineer who worked on several ships for several shipping companies, including a stint with White Star on Teutonic.

[John McDonald]

William Harbinson Merchant Seaman's Continuous Certificate of Discharge (1).jpgWilliam Harbinson Merchant Seaman's Continuous Certificate of Discharge (2).jpgWilliam Harbinson Merchant Seaman's Continuous Certificate of Discharge (3).jpgWilliam Harbinson Merchant Seaman's Continuous Certificate of Discharge (4).jpgWilliam Harbinson Merchant Seaman's Continuous Certificate of Discharge (5).jpg

Here is his Merchant Seaman's Continuous Certificate of Discharge

[Keith at Tregenna]

Hi John,

Quick look via Irish Mariners so far drew a blank.

Will look more in the morning.

Do you have any idea as to his place of birth ?

Keith.

- - - Updated - - -

William Harbinson Merchant Seaman's Continuous Certificate of Discharge (1).jpgWilliam Harbinson Merchant Seaman's Continuous Certificate of Discharge (2).jpgWilliam Harbinson Merchant Seaman's Continuous Certificate of Discharge (3).jpgWilliam Harbinson Merchant Seaman's Continuous Certificate of Discharge (4).jpgWilliam Harbinson Merchant Seaman's Continuous Certificate of Discharge (5).jpg

Here is his Merchant Seaman's Continuous Certificate of Discharge

You must have updated as I searched and replied.

Fingers crossed, will do all possible to assist.

K.

[Doc Vernon]

Hello John
Thank you for posting these and I hope you mat get futher help in time.
However may I ask you as you already have his Discharge Book with lots of info,what are you now actually looking for? Just curious as to where we are going with this .
As said I hope we can be of more assistance depending on what you want.
Thank you and Welcome to the site!
Enjoy
Cheers

[John McDonald]

Thanks to those who have replied. William Harbinson was from Belfast and was married in Cliftonville Presbyterian Church, North Belfast, in 1894 but spent some years living in the Isle of Dogs, East London, which as far as I know was because he was working for Yarrow Shipbuilders, possibly on Mr Yarrow's private yacht. Yarrow later left London for Glasgow. We have a couple of Cubitt Town addresses for my great-grandfather; he was living in 108 Eastferry Road when my grandmother was born in 1900 and by the time of the 1901 census he was in Manchester Road. He later returned to North Belfast and lived in the Oldpark area. He may have worked for Harland & Wolff at some stage and may have been a member of the Harland & Wolff band but I am not certain of that. He is, however, in a group photograph of a large group of men, one of whom is holding a cornet.

I received the photographs and scans of the discharge book and the Teutonic payslip recently from my sister. These documents provide a barebones record of his maritime career and I have commenced looking up information about the ships listed in the discharge book. It soon became apparent that several of the ships were sunk during the timespan of his career but I do not yet know whether or not he was involved in any incidents at sea.

[Ivan Cloherty]

From the Discharge A Book records you have shown, all voyages were completed, so no sinkings there, if he was on a vessel that sunk whilst he was serving on it, then his DisA Book was probably lost with the vessel ,unless the Master had time to take all the important documents from the safe. In the event his Dis A Book went down with the ship he would have been issued with a replacement book with the same number, and there would be a notation on the first page that it was a replacement book, and in the back of the book a notation showing the details of his last voyage where-in a vessel is lost by an incident at sea peacetime, if his book was recovered, it would be lodged with the first shipping office in the port where the rescuing ship docked and the rescued Master could lodge the documents saved, the Dis A Book would then be returned to the seaman with a VNC (Voyage Not Completed) in the details column, with a notation 'vessel sunk and the date'.