My father (William John MARTIN b 03 May 1900 d 30 Oct 1974) once remarked to my sister that went to sea for a while but gave it up when his ship sank and the crew had to take to the boats. We all took this with a pinch of salt but I decided to put the story to the test There's a useful new site at http://www.irishmariners.ie which contains a database of Irish merchant mariners. The database contains details of (currently) 15000 Irish-born merchant mariners active in 1918-1921, and is based on the CR10 records held at Southampton Archives Service. The database is searchable (and free to use) and will eventually include approx 25000 names. Data available for the seamen includes data and place of birth, voyages undertaken, certificates attained and, in some cases, home and next of kin. Many of the original records include photographs of the seamen, a sample of which are on the site. Putting Dad's name into the search engine produced a reference to this record - (The date and city of birth are identical). Martin, William John (sailor) Identity No.445500. Born: 1900-05-03, Londonderry, (Co:Londonderry) Disch A No: 1022140 Photo: f5 hair Notes: Renewal I have now ordered a copy of the old sailor's CR10 card from Southampton Archives Services Southampton Archives Services Civic Centre Southampton SO14 7LY Tel. (023) 8083 2251 Email: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Website: www.southampton.gov.uk/leisure/history/archives/ They can provide copies of the cards in various formats. The original CR10 cards are 5 inches by 3 inches in size, which is a bit small to do justice to many of the photographs. I asked for a 50% enlargement of the original on a Laser A4 photocopy. This will make the most of the photo and the card will be in colour. Current cost (July 2008) is £1.25 for each side which makes the overall cost of the card £2.50 plus postage and search fee of £2.00. (if you quote the full name and ID Number ) Send a cheque. We should find out what ships this Jolly Jack Tar was on and if any of them sank - Watch this space! Liam http://postmanbill2.tribalpages.com/ "A bird in the bush is worth two in the cat"