My interest was aroused when I saw the word HOY in the company's title and guessed this must have been a ship owning company. Hoy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoy_(boat) For anyone interested in ship ownership, British ship ownership was, and still is required to be divided into 64 shares. This was originally to spread the considerable risk for owners in the 19th. century. Often local businessmen would take a few shares each in a ship, and it was not unusual for the ship's Master (Captain) to be invited to take a share, to give him a great involvement in the commercial aspect of 'his' ship. Taking this a stage further, it was not unusual for a one-ship company to invite the ship's Master, if he was also a share holder, to be nominated the Official Owner, even though his holding might be considerably less than other shareholders in that particular ship. This was usually when he had more experience in marine commerce than the other shareholders who may include bakers or farmers etc. It can sometimes be misleading when someone is described as a 'ship owner'. While this is normally correct, it does not necessarily mean that he/she owned all 64 shares in the vessel. It was not unusual for a widow to take on her deceased husband's shareholding. Nomination of an Official Owner was a requirement, and his or her name and address would appear in documents such as crew lists, accounts of voyages, log books, etc. Port Transcription records show the history of the ownership of a vessel while registered in a particular port, and are very useful for anyone who wants to find more about local ship owners as it shows data about the ship, her period of registry in that port, the name of shareholders and their holdings, and when they bought and sold these shares. Originally held by the local harbour authority, many of these books were disposed of, but a few years ago the 'Registrar of British Ships and Seamen' based in Cardiff, made copies available on microfiche to various institutes such as local libraries and museums. For example King's Lynn library has a set for the ships registered in her port. There may be a set at Margate. Some county archives kept origianl Port Transcription records. The remit of the Registrar of British Ships and Seamen included all British, Empire and Commonwealth registered ships and their crews. Many small ports which originally had their own registry had their registry closed in the later 19th. century to save costs, and vessels would then be registered in a larger port near by. The Registrar also held copies of all Crew Lists, the more useful and interesting Accounts of Voyages, and Log Books, but sold a lot of their archives a few years ago. Most surviving original documents were bought by the Memorial University of Newfoundand which has catalogued and made them available to the public, although to search their archives you will need a ship's Official Number. http://www.mun.ca/mha/about.php http://www.mun.ca/mha/holdings/searchcombinedcrews.php Greenwich - our National Maritime Museum - bought the remainder, mostly those for the years ending with a 5. http://www.nmm.ac.uk/ Greenwich offers a fine set of downloadable guides from their website for maritime research. Kew has some seamen's records, but perhaps more importantly have produced two excellent podcasts on researching seamen and ships: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/podcasts/merchant-navy-service-records.htm http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/podcasts/merchant-navy.htm although it was technically the 'Merchant Marine' until after WW1 when the title 'Merchant Navy' was granted by the King in recognition of the effort given by our unarmed mariners during that war. At the same time, the Royal Navy granted all British ship's Master the courtesy title of 'Captain'. Although it had been in common use for a long time, the legal title still is a ship's Master. A ship's Official Number was and still is issued to an individual ship when she is first entered in the Register for British ships. This may be as a newbuilt, or a vessel brought in from a non-British, Empire or Commonwealth country (including war prize-ships). The number was carved on her foremost main beam (nowadays it is written in welding) and will remain with that ship, even if she leaves the British register and returns at a later date, or if she changes her name while still on the British Registry, as often happens. A fine web site for tracking down crew lists etc. is the CLIP transcription project: http://www.crewlist.org.uk/ If anyone has difficulty finding the official number of a British vessel for further research, don't hesitate to drop me a line via this forum if it should be of interest to others, or off-list. Good hunting, Chris > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Suzannah Foad" <suzannah.foad@btopenworld.com> > To: <isle-of-thanet-l@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 7:14 AM > Subject: [Isle-of-Thanet] MARGATE HOY COMPANY 1910 > > Isle of Thanet Gazette 26th March 1910. > > 'MARGATE HOY COMPANY' - At the ordinary general meeting of this Company, > held at the Registered Office, 53, High Street, > Margate, on Monday evening, the following report was received from the > Directors, who are Messrs. John Bayly (Chairman), A.W. Bayly, H. Wootton, > R. > Rapson, l.A. Drain and George Judge:- "The Directors submit the accounts > for the twelve months ending January 30th, 1910, and regret the working > shows a > small loss, partly accounted for by the reduction of rates and the > running of two barges during the winter months, in order that the > connection might be > kept together...... > Margate Local & Family History > > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ISLE-OF-THANET-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ISLE-OF-THANET-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1153 / Virus Database: 424/3234 - Release Date: 11/02/10