Not that long ago the applications by master mariners and mates for their certificates of competency or service became available on Ancestry.com. These applications can include very useful addresses and precise dates of birth. Consider the following enquiry from Australia. The enquirer knew that her ancestor Evan Evans was a master mariner. His wife and family had  settled at Collingwood, Melbourne, they had had at least three children one of whom Jane had been born at Cork in 1841. The other children were Sarah Frances Evans was born 1849, and Robert Evans or John Robert Evans born 1854, no place of birth for them is known. Mary died in 1858 and was described as a widow. A search though all the maritime records on Find my Past and Ancestry showed that over 95% of all mariners called Evan Evans had been born in Wales. A search in our Welsh mariners website yielded a few candidates. The application by one of the them was quite intriguing. He was Evan Evans of Aberdovey, Cardiganshire (sic). Is there an Aberdovey in this county? Born on 18 Sept 1802 he was an apprentice on the Hopewell of Aberdovey from 1813-19. Thereafter he sailed as a mate or master on New Ross, Ireland registered vessels. The last vessel shown on his application in 1850 was as master of  the Tottenham of Cork between 1845-50, most of the Irish sailings were to North America. He therefore became a strong candidate. Remarkably amongst his application papers was a declaration he had made at the Police Office, Borough of Cork that his master mariner's certificate had been lost by the wreck of the ship Tottenham at the island of Caperton (where is this?) on 16 October 1854. He was granted a new certificate early in 1855 but the Board of trade records did not shown any further sailings. Nothing is known about his fate or even if he ever arrived at Australia with his wife and family. Reg Davies http://www.welshmariners.org.uk/ ________________________________

Dear Reg This is quite hard to track down, but I could find this information from the Trove database. SHIPWRECK. New Ross, Dec. 18. Arrived at the quay at Ross yesterday, the barque Tottenham, from Quebec. Fell in with and spoke, on the 27th ult., in lat. 42. 44. N. long. 36. 41. W, the British Man-of-War, Star, a complete wreck, having lost masts, bowsprit, bulwarks, boats and apparently every article, fore and aft, from her deck. Capt. Thomas attempted to near her and take her in tow, but owing to the distressed state of his own vessel, having struck on Barrett's Ledge, and making much water, he found it impossible to do so. After repeated ineffectual efforts to render him assistance, wore off the 'Tottenham' having hoisted a small square sail on the stump of his foremast, and steered S. S. E. There seemed to be from 15 to 20 men on her deck. Other accounts describe the vessel in distress to be H.M.S. Sprey; it is supposed she must have encountered an iceberg or been run foul of in the very boisterous weather which has prevailed on the Coast of Newfoundland [The Sydney Monitor, 23 July 1836]. Given this, I wonder if Caperton is an error for Cape Breton Island, which would seem to fit in with where the Tottenham might have sailed and a likely place to get shipwrecked if sailing to Quebec. Further work requires looking at the earlier hard copy volumes of Lloyds Register of Shipping which are not online at the CLIP Project, the Ship's Registers in Class BT 107, etc., or the Index to Lloyds List at the Guildhall Library. As always, it depends where this original statement about the shipwreck was gathered from. Perhaps the folk who wrote down what was said at Cork did not care too much, or they found the Welsh accent of Evan Evans too difficult to cope with. Brian -----Original Message----- From: dyfed-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:dyfed-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of REGINALD DAVIES Sent: 29 December 2013 22:05 To: dyfed@rootsweb.com Subject: [Dyfed] Applications by masters for certificates Not that long ago the applications by master mariners and mates for their certificates of competency or service became available on Ancestry.com. These applications can include very useful addresses and precise dates of birth. Consider the following enquiry from Australia. The enquirer knew that her ancestor Evan Evans was a master mariner. His wife and family had  settled at Collingwood, Melbourne, they had had at least three children one of whom Jane had been born at Cork in 1841. The other children were Sarah Frances Evans was born 1849, and Robert Evans or John Robert Evans born 1854, no place of birth for them is known. Mary died in 1858 and was described as a widow. A search though all the maritime records on Find my Past and Ancestry showed that over 95% of all mariners called Evan Evans had been born in Wales. A search in our Welsh mariners website yielded a few candidates. The application by one of the them was quite intriguing. He was Evan Evans of Aberdovey, Cardiganshire (sic). Is there an Aberdovey in this county? Born on 18 Sept 1802 he was an apprentice on the Hopewell of Aberdovey from 1813-19. Thereafter he sailed as a mate or master on New Ross, Ireland, registered vessels. The last vessel shown on his application in 1850 was as master of  the Tottenham of Cork between 1845-50, most of the Irish sailings were to North America. He therefore became a strong candidate. Remarkably amongst his application papers was a declaration he had made at the Police Office, Borough of Cork, that his master mariner's certificate had been lost by the wreck of the ship Tottenham at the island of Caperton (where is this?) on 16 October 1854. He was granted a new certificate early in 1855 but the Board of Trade records did not shown any further sailings. Nothing is known about his fate or even if he ever arrived at Australia with his wife and family. Reg Davies http://www.welshmariners.org.uk/ ________________________________ ================================ Dyfed list REVISED resources http://home.clara.net/daibevan/DyfedML.html [Dec2012] ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DYFED-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Reg, Brian is correct about Cape Breton. The following paragraph is contained in the link below which refers to 1854. ...The third was the barque "Tottenham," from Cork, with 101 passengers, lost near Port Nova, Cape Breton, on the 20th October, passengers and luggage all saved. They were forwarded by the master by a schooner to Halifax, and from thence proceeded to Boston, their destination being chiefly to the United States. A large number of shipwrecked emigrants have been brought to this port taken from ships bound to Boston or New York. http://jubilation.uwaterloo.ca/~marj/genealogy/reports/report1854.html Derek -----Original Message----- From: Brian Swann Sent: Monday, December 30, 2013 1:04 PM To: 'REGINALD DAVIES' ; dyfed@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [Dyfed] Applications by masters for certificates Dear Reg This is quite hard to track down, but I could find this information from the Trove database. SHIPWRECK. New Ross, Dec. 18. Arrived at the quay at Ross yesterday, the barque Tottenham, from Quebec. Fell in with and spoke, on the 27th ult., in lat. 42. 44. N. long. 36. 41. W, the British Man-of-War, Star, a complete wreck, having lost masts, bowsprit, bulwarks, boats and apparently every article, fore and aft, from her deck. Capt. Thomas attempted to near her and take her in tow, but owing to the distressed state of his own vessel, having struck on Barrett's Ledge, and making much water, he found it impossible to do so. After repeated ineffectual efforts to render him assistance, wore off the 'Tottenham' having hoisted a small square sail on the stump of his foremast, and steered S. S. E. There seemed to be from 15 to 20 men on her deck. Other accounts describe the vessel in distress to be H.M.S. Sprey; it is supposed she must have encountered an iceberg or been run foul of in the very boisterous weather which has prevailed on the Coast of Newfoundland [The Sydney Monitor, 23 July 1836]. Given this, I wonder if Caperton is an error for Cape Breton Island, which would seem to fit in with where the Tottenham might have sailed and a likely place to get shipwrecked if sailing to Quebec. Further work requires looking at the earlier hard copy volumes of Lloyds Register of Shipping which are not online at the CLIP Project, the Ship's Registers in Class BT 107, etc., or the Index to Lloyds List at the Guildhall Library. As always, it depends where this original statement about the shipwreck was gathered from. Perhaps the folk who wrote down what was said at Cork did not care too much, or they found the Welsh accent of Evan Evans too difficult to cope with. Brian -----Original Message----- From: dyfed-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:dyfed-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of REGINALD DAVIES Sent: 29 December 2013 22:05 To: dyfed@rootsweb.com Subject: [Dyfed] Applications by masters for certificates Not that long ago the applications by master mariners and mates for their certificates of competency or service became available on Ancestry.com. These applications can include very useful addresses and precise dates of birth. Consider the following enquiry from Australia. The enquirer knew that her ancestor Evan Evans was a master mariner. His wife and family had settled at Collingwood, Melbourne, they had had at least three children one of whom Jane had been born at Cork in 1841. The other children were Sarah Frances Evans was born 1849, and Robert Evans or John Robert Evans born 1854, no place of birth for them is known. Mary died in 1858 and was described as a widow. A search though all the maritime records on Find my Past and Ancestry showed that over 95% of all mariners called Evan Evans had been born in Wales. A search in our Welsh mariners website yielded a few candidates. The application by one of the them was quite intriguing. He was Evan Evans of Aberdovey, Cardiganshire (sic). Is there an Aberdovey in this county? Born on 18 Sept 1802 he was an apprentice on the Hopewell of Aberdovey from 1813-19. Thereafter he sailed as a mate or master on New Ross, Ireland, registered vessels. The last vessel shown on his application in 1850 was as master of the Tottenham of Cork between 1845-50, most of the Irish sailings were to North America. He therefore became a strong candidate. Remarkably amongst his application papers was a declaration he had made at the Police Office, Borough of Cork, that his master mariner's certificate had been lost by the wreck of the ship Tottenham at the island of Caperton (where is this?) on 16 October 1854. He was granted a new certificate early in 1855 but the Board of Trade records did not shown any further sailings. Nothing is known about his fate or even if he ever arrived at Australia with his wife and family. Reg Davies http://www.welshmariners.org.uk/ ________________________________ ================================ Dyfed list REVISED resources http://home.clara.net/daibevan/DyfedML.html [Dec2012] ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DYFED-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ================================ Dyfed list REVISED resources http://home.clara.net/daibevan/DyfedML.html [Dec2012] ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DYFED-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message