HI Eileen, Not all vessels that were at sea during the 1871 census are included in the online census at Ancestry, the Lucy may not have gone down at all but might just be one of the ships not included in the images of that census online. If the Lucy was a Merchant vessel then she probably is not included in the 1871 images, if however, she was a Royal Naval vessel then she probably would have been included. You would need to check things like the Lloyd's list of shipping and such like. The Mariners website should be helpful with ideas of what you need to look at to find out if the Lucy went down or what happened to her. You could also ask on the Mariners mailing list whether anyone knows anything about the Lucy, give them what details you can about her, say that your ancestor died between the 1861 and 1871 and you wonder whether the Lucy went down during that period, and see if anyone can add anything further. One way to check is to go to the Ancestry site, select a census, for instance the 1871, then when you get up the search pane rather than fill that in a search, scroll down to below the search fields and you will see a list of county names and in amongst those would be Vessels, if merchant vessels are included, and also you should see Royal Navy which will give you the link to Vessel and the alphabetical list of ships names that I gave you yesterday. You should be able to do this on all the census except the 1841 and 1851. Ships at sea and in British ports were not included in the 1841 census at all, only people who slept the night of census night on dry land were included in that census. The 1851 did include ships that were in British ports but not those that were in sea, but these are not online as they have not all been kept by the national archive, as I understand it from my enquiries into the ships schedules of the 1851. The 1861 census was the first census to include not only ships in British ports but also those that were on the high seas and in foreign ports on census night. The master of each vessel was given the schedule for his ship before his ship sailed on the voyage that would take her away over census night. The master duly filled out the schedule and handed it in at his first port of call where there was either a British Consul, if in a foreign country or to the General Registrar at a British port. This is my understanding of things. The later census included ships at sea and in ports in the same way. I have the image of my ancestors, merchant, ship from the 1861 and that first page of the schedule giving the ships details shows the compass position that she was at midnight on census night, this compass position shows that she was off the coast of Lowestoft Suffolk and 6 miles from the Dudgeon Light. I was told by the subscribers to the Mariners list what the compass position meant and that the Dudgeon light was a light ship, anchored out at sea rather than a lighthouse on land, but today it is a light bouy. You can see from this how useful that first side of the schedule of a ship at sea can be if you can get hold of one. Another thing I got hold of was the crew lists from 1860 for the same vessel on LDS film. You need the ships registration number so that you can order the correct film, the film that contains that ships number. The crew list showed me how much each crew member was paid for the voyage and what position they signed on as. Those same crew lists also told me the number of the masters certificate that my ancestor held and from that I was able to order a copy of that certificate and the testimonials that went with it form the National Maritime Museum Greenwich London. So you can learn a lot about a man who went to sea on a merchant vessel, which you imply your mariners did once they left the navy. Regards Jenny DeAngelis. Spain. Eileen Wrote << I found a John Williamson on board the ship "Lucy" in 1861, a cook and able seaman from Lerwick, Shetland and discovered that "Lucy" was then in Hamburg. Going back from there, it looks like my Grandfather could have been right about the Scottish connection because there was one John Williamson born in Lerwick with a father called Thomas! Now I need to find out where and when John died between 1861 and 1867 when his wife died, a widow. The Lucy is not listed for the 1871 census so perhaps she went down, taking my g.g. grandfather with her? >>