Hi Yes, ballast means a ship with no cargo but something very cheap and heavy so that she could be sailed to wherever there was cargo. It is odd to think that iron (not sure in what form) was once used as ballast in ships returning to Newcastle, having taken coals to London! That was how my gt gt gt grandfather started in the iron trade- someone thought "we could do something with all this", and did. Actually, there's a great story behind this but it is to do with iron, not ships! Sand, stones.....ballast material. Yes ships often had the same name. If you look up Lloyds Register on Line, (sorry can never remember if it is of shipping or of ships) and type , say "Ann" or "Mary Jane" in the search box, you will see there are lots. When I was researching "my" captain, his ship the Tornado left Liverpool about the same time as another ship of the same name, both with emigrants for Australia. There the similarity ends, no-one got hurt on the first one. I am not confident about the answers to the other questions, though I would think Mr Forbes owned the slaves and shingles. Clare, Oxford UK -----Original Message----- From: mariners-request <mariners-request@rootsweb.com> To: mariners <mariners@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tue, 4 Aug 2015 8:10 Subject: MARINERS Digest, Vol 10, Issue 121 Today's Topics: 1. Newspaper terminology (Barbara A. Brown) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2015 02:30:02 +0000 (UTC) From: "Barbara A. Brown" <babrown12@yahoo.com> Subject: [MAR] Newspaper terminology To: "MARINERS@rootsweb.com" <MARINERS@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <1557430415.142871.1438655402400.JavaMail.yahoo@mail.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 ? I am looking for news of a certain ship, and I have encountered some language I don't understand. newspaper reports of ship news seem to have the same format [ e.g. Schooner Ceres, Tarbox, cleared...][ schr Ceres, Wheldon arrived ..] . I'm guessing that the word after the ship name is the Captain's name. Is that right? How common was it to have three different captains within two months - or to have Capt. A followed by capts. B & C and then back to Captain A? this one has me confused: "10feb 1827 - eliz city - arrived 3rd?schooner ceres ?Pearson, 20 days from mobile, in ballast" does 'in ballast' mean that there was no cargo? "24 feb 1827 Elizabeth City cleared, 20th schooner Ceres, Wheldon, for guadeloupe, slaves and shingles by A. Forbes, jr"is A Forbes, jr the guy who is shipping the slaves and shingles, or is he the guy to whom they are delivered, or something else? lastly - I'm guessing that ships could have the same name as another ship?[ I have two reports of schooner ceres sinking - decades apart...] Thank you. ------------------------------ To contact the MARINERS list administrator, send an email to MARINERS-admin@rootsweb.com. To post a message to the MARINERS mailing list, send an email to MARINERS@rootsweb.com. __________________________________________________________ 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 email with no additional text. End of MARINERS Digest, Vol 10, Issue 121 *****************************************

Just a few extra things about ballast. At ports with tidal rivers there were very specific rules about where you could discharge ballast of stones, etc. The mudbanks exposed at low tide, the 'layer', where a sailing vessel would come to rest as the tide ebbed, was a valuable resource for the port, and the 'layer keeper' would not want any old stones or shingle dumped in it, so masters could be prosecuted for dumping ballast in the wrong place. Some ports had specific places where ballast was discharged - at Cardiff for example there was the 'ballast bank'. This ballast could then be used by contractors for the port authorities, along with domestic refuse, dredged silt and anything else to hand, to provide the 'made ground' for docks that were built out from the old shoreline into fairly shallow tidal waters. Ballast could also be used for creating or improving sea walls, or infilling behind masonry defences against the sea. The use of stone as ballast is one reason why on some seaside beaches which were at one time used for trade pebbles turn up that are totally different in character from the local geology. Different countries and different times may have had different usage, but in the 'Cambrian' newspaper in Swansea in the 1870s and 1880s, which I am familiar with, incoming vessels often showed where they came from,what the cargo was, the weight, and who it was to be delivered to. Outgoing vessels would show the destination, vessel name, sometimes the master, tonnage, nationality, sometimes the cargo and the shipping agent. If the cargo was not listed it was probably coal. For example http://newspapers.library.wales/view/3336162/3336170/58/poingdestre where I searched for one of the leading coal exporters in the port at the time, Poingdestre & Mesnier. If you have a curious nature and want to look at that article, look at the cargo brought in by the 'Salvatore' from Genoa on March 1st 1882, the last vessel named in 'imports'. Incidentally, in that newspaper at that time, 's' was the abbreviation for 'steamer'. Jeff ----- Original Message ----- From: "rosalindthefair via" <mariners@rootsweb.com> To: <mariners@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2015 4:27 PM Subject: [MAR] Re newspaper terminology > > Hi > > Yes, ballast means a ship with no cargo but something very cheap and heavy > so that she could be sailed to wherever there was cargo. It is odd to > think that iron (not sure in what form) was once used as ballast in ships > returning to Newcastle, having taken coals to London! That was how my gt > gt gt grandfather started in the iron trade- someone thought "we could do > something with all this", and did. Actually, there's a great story behind > this but it is to do with iron, not ships! > > Sand, stones.....ballast material. > > Yes ships often had the same name. If you look up Lloyds Register on Line, > (sorry can never remember if it is of shipping or of ships) and type , say > "Ann" or "Mary Jane" in the search box, you will see there are lots. When > I was researching "my" captain, his ship the Tornado left Liverpool about > the same time as another ship of the same name, both with emigrants for > Australia. There the similarity ends, no-one got hurt on the first one. > > I am not confident about the answers to the other questions, though I > would think Mr Forbes owned the slaves and shingles. > > Clare, Oxford UK > > > -----Original Message----- > From: mariners-request <mariners-request@rootsweb.com> > To: mariners <mariners@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Tue, 4 Aug 2015 8:10 > Subject: MARINERS Digest, Vol 10, Issue 121 > > > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Newspaper terminology (Barbara A. > Brown) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: > 1 > Date: Tue, 4 Aug 2015 02:30:02 +0000 (UTC) > From: "Barbara A. Brown" > <babrown12@yahoo.com> > Subject: [MAR] Newspaper terminology > To: > "MARINERS@rootsweb.com" > <MARINERS@rootsweb.com> > Message-ID: > <1557430415.142871.1438655402400.JavaMail.yahoo@mail.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: > text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > ? I am looking for news of a certain ship, and I > have encountered some language I don't understand. > newspaper reports of ship > news seem to have the same format [ e.g. Schooner Ceres, Tarbox, > cleared...][ > schr Ceres, Wheldon arrived ..] . I'm guessing that the word after the > ship name > is the Captain's name. Is that right? > How common was it to have three different > captains within two months - or to have Capt. A followed by capts. B & C > and > then back to Captain A? > > this one has me confused: > "10feb 1827 - eliz city - > arrived 3rd?schooner ceres ?Pearson, 20 days from mobile, in ballast" does > 'in > ballast' mean that there was no cargo? > "24 feb 1827 Elizabeth City cleared, > 20th schooner Ceres, Wheldon, for guadeloupe, slaves and shingles by A. > Forbes, > jr"is A Forbes, jr the guy who is shipping the slaves and shingles, or is > he the > guy to whom they are delivered, or something else? > lastly - I'm guessing that > ships could have the same name as another ship?[ I have two reports of > schooner > ceres sinking - decades apart...] > Thank > you. >