My great grandfather John Geil (also known as Gill, Giel, even Gest) served on the Barrosa from June 1869 when he was 32 years old to July 1875. I have downloaded a photograph of the Barrosa’s crew taken in 1871 from Walker Archive www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/cruisers.htm showing a crew of 17 sailors. The Barrosa was a Corvette 1700 tons with a complement of 275 therefore my chances of John being on this particular photo are extremely slim. Is there any way I can narrow the odds or able to name the 17 sailors? Or are there any other photos of the crew? During his time on this ship he served as Able Seaman, Leading Seaman and Cap. Mast, what is Cap. Mast? Grateful for any information, thank you, Joan Gibbs.

Hi Joan >what is Cap. Mast? The Captain of the Mast was the equivalent of a 2nd Class Working Petty Officer....see the pay scales for about 1860 to see where this comes from : http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/RN/Pay_and_Condns/Pay_1860_Ratings.htm for 1870 pay scales see : http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Navy_List_1870/Pay.html As you can probably see from the Pay Tables and the different number of Petty Officers' titles ie Capt of the Forecastle, and Capt of the Afterguard (Quaterdeck) etc. the ship was divided up into sections for maintenance and responsibility for the personnel working in that section of the ship, for the cleanliness, the ropes and sails etc., so assuming that the "Mast" was the Mainmast I would assume that it was that "part of ship," as they say, that you man was responsible for ie between the f'csle and the quarterdeck, often known as the waist. An interesting section from British Napoleonic Ship-Of-The-Line By Angus Konstam, Tony Bryan can be found in Google Books : <http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Og_73Qn8jp8C&pg=PT23&lpg=PT23&dq=%22Watch+bill%22+part+of+ship&source=bl&ots=tjJ47K_N36&sig=S4Ss-tj61uw7wTZWbN4_tcPMJhQ&hl=en&ei=63OlTonnF47D8QPD_KXxBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&sqi=2&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Watch%20bill%22%20part%20of%20ship&f=false> which explains how a ship's company was organised. This is for an earlier period, but it hadn't changed a lot for your period of interest as most ships still had sails even if they had an steam engine. Paul On Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:30:11 +1000, "Joan & Peter Gibbs" <joan.peter.gibbs.3@bigpond.com> wrote: >My great grandfather John Geil (also known as Gill, Giel, even Gest) served on the Barrosa from June 1869 when he was 32 years old to July 1875. I have downloaded a photograph of the Barrosa’s crew taken in 1871 from Walker Archive www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/cruisers.htm showing a crew of 17 sailors. The Barrosa was a Corvette 1700 tons with a complement of 275 therefore my chances of John being on this particular photo are extremely slim. Is there any way I can narrow the odds or able to name the 17 sailors? Or are there any other photos of the crew? During his time on this ship he served as Able Seaman, Leading Seaman and Cap. Mast, what is Cap. Mast? Grateful for any information, thank you, Joan Gibbs. > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MARINERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message 50° 33' N, 2° 26' W http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval.html