Nivard, Your interesting Email, and the subsequent correspondence do not make clear what these apprentices were for i.e. were the passing-out people to be deck officers that is Skippers on fishing boats or MMs who would be deck officers in the MN ? Or were they to become able seamen ? or a mixture ? Did these arrangements cover the engineering branch ? It would obviously be futile for our members (MAR) who know that their ancestor served as an AB to try to look up an apprenticeship record if it were for officers only. Graham On Fri, Aug 7, 2015 at 9:36 PM, Nivard Ovington via <mariners@rootsweb.com> wrote: > > About UK, Apprentices Indentured in Merchant Navy, 1824-1910 > > This collection contains lists of young men who were indentured to > merchant navy ships between the years 1824 and 1910. They include > details such as name, age and date at registration or indenture, vessel, > port of registry, and birth year and place. > > Historical Background > > The National Archives describes the legislation that brought these > records about: > > Under the Merchant Seamen, etc, Act 1823 (4 Geo IV c 25) Masters of > British merchant ships of 80 tons and over were required to carry a > given number of indentured apprentices. These had to be duly enrolled > with the local Customs Officer. These provisions were extended by the > Merchant Seamen Act 1835 (5 & 6 Wm IV c 19) which provided for the > registration of these indentures. In London they were registered with > the General Register and Record Office of Seamen and in other ports with > the Customs officers who were required to submit quarterly lists to the > Registrar General. In 1844 it was provided for copies of the indentures > to be sent to the Registrar General, and although compulsory > apprenticeship was abolished in 1849 the system of registration was > maintained. Under the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 (57 & 58 Vict c 60) a > parallel arrangement was introduced for apprentices on fishing boats. > > > > > -- > Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) > > ------------------------------- > 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 >