My gg grandfather, Joseph Clarke, was born in Liverpool in 1841. Records of him up to 1881 showed him to be a bookkeeper. In the 1881 census, however, he is described as a ship's steward and in 1887 a record shows him as a purser. After that there is no further record of him and there is no oral history in the family of what became of him. I think that he probably died while abroad or at sea. The only possible death at sea record is the death of a Joseph Clarke on 16th June 1889. This was on the 'SS State of Navada' a Glasgow registered ship number 653. This Joseph is described as a carpenter aged 58. My Joseph would have been 48. Despite the difference in age and occupation I think that this may have been him. Can anyone offer any advice as to how I might be able to research this further. David