Hello Jackie, Try newspapers, everywhere. Some free databases are: Trove, Australia - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper PapersPast, New Zealand - http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast Chronicling America, USA - http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/newspapers/ It does cost to read articles in the British Newspaper Archive http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/ but you can search there for free and get as far as the thumbnails. They sell short-term subscriptions. The usual format for names in the shipping news is: [Vessel name COMMA master Surname] so searching for "LIGHTNING, Byrne" brings up lots of ads giving her tonnage and sailing dates. (The quotation marks indicate that you want instances where those two words occur in that order.) LIGHTNING was a Black Ball Line vessel. Using this search term (with the quotation marks, but without the square brackets) ["Black Ball Line" Lightning Byrne] will get you building details, images and hits mentioning your man, like this one: http://www.shippingwondersoftheworld.com/wpimages/wp63123471_06.png Try that with all the vessel names you have so far. There are business letters written by your man here: http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0012%2FMS%20JM%2FB10;sib0=14 The CLIP (Crew List Indexing Project) website will lead you to information on the ships and possibly even to actual crew lists (which will have some of your man's handwriting) http://www.crewlist.org.uk/data/vesselsalpha.php Regards, Adi -------------------------------------------- On Tue, 3/17/15, Jackie via <mariners@rootsweb.com> wrote: Subject: [MAR] Request for Help, Edward Bynre To: "MARINERS@rootsweb.com" <mariners@rootsweb.com> Received: Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 10:58 AM Hello can anyone help me please? I have come upon a brick wall, the most confusing website known to man... you may know it as the National Archives! So my ancestor was a merchant navy captain, active seatime 1840-1865 i have master & mates certificates & a list of some vessels he served on, i'm trying to find info on the vessels & him but to no avail, is there an easier place to look?  Because honestly i have given up on the NA it just hurts to look! Edward Byrne b1823 liverpool. Cert 3159 Vessels i have him on, not necessarily as a Captain,   Kingston 1846,Charles Jouer/Jones?? 1847,House of Zubec/Quebec 1848Inglewood 1849John Gibson 1850 Protector 1850-57  Foam of the cape of good horn?? ZingariLightning Hope you can help me, Thanks Jackie                            ------------------------------- 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