G'day Anne, When the Board of Trade in Britain got rid of the Crew Agreements records, a 10% sample was acquired by the PRO; a further 10% by the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich (years ending in a 5); and a third 10% by local museums and county record offices (ships of local interest). The other 70% was acquired by the: Maritime History Archive, Memorial University St John's Newfoundland Canada The front page of Crew Agreements give details of the ship, its owners, insurance etc etc. The back page has the stamps of the Harbourmaster (British ports including the Empire) or British Consul (foreign ports). The inside pages list the crew with details of rank age (or date of birth) birthplace rate of pay name of previous ship date of previous voyage discharge (if applicable) I used the services of the Maritime History Archive in St John's in the pre-internet days to trace my German great grandfather back voyage by voyage until he first signed on as crew on a British ship while it was docked in Hamburg. It cost me C$30 at the time. (The British Merchant Navy was far and away the largest Merchant Navy in the world at the time and employed thousands of foreigners as crew). By the way, there would have been no "Prussian Navy" in 1881. The German Empire was formed in 1871 with the King of Prussia as Emperor. While the Prussian Army continued in existence, as did the Saxon, Bavarian and Wurttemberg Armies, which fought under the "German High Command", there was the single "German Imperial Navy" under Admiral Tirpitz, which later in the 19th century grew to challenge the Royal Navy. If your great grandfather deserted in New South Wales, even from a merchant ship, then he is more than likely listed in the NSW Police (or Government) Gazette. Hope this helps David Armstrong Maylands, Western Australia ----- Original Message ----- From: leech07@optusnet.com.au To: ENG-LIVERPOOL@rootsweb.com Sent: Monday, September 07, 2009 4:30 PM Subject: [ENG-LIV] Shipping After many years of searching a distant family member allerted me to the records online of shipping coming to Sydney Australia. On the "Mariners and Ships in Australian Waters" site I have found who I think was my great grandfather. He was believed to have deserted ship from the Prussian Navy before he arrived here. However the first Mate on the "Champion" from Liverpool to Sydney in 1881 appears to be him. Was it therefore possible that he then served on English ships? I have now seen that Liverpool in those days was home to a mix of seamen from all over the world, possibly illeagle too. I was wondering if anyone on the list knows how I can find out what type of ship the "Champion" was. It appears to be some sort of merchantile vessel as there was only one passenger. The seaman I am researching was Rudolph Charles Frederik Priester, born Gustrow Prussia in c1833. I was wondering if he featured on an 1881 Census although I can't find him online. Possibly he was in UK for the 1871 Census? He did not marry until he got to Australia so I'm wondering if he features on any sort of records in the UK other than BMD. Any help much appreciated. Anne ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Admin Message - List guidelines: http://freespace.virgin.net/genealogical.collections/AdminMessage.htm The list admin can be contacted at Eng-Liverpool-admin@rootsweb.com ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ENG-LIVERPOOL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message