One of my ancestors had an odd career. Started out in the Royal Navy {Seaman 1857}; then Coastguard {1861}; Naval Pensioner ( 1871); Seaman Merchant Service {1874} and deceased by 1879. I coundn't find his death in Free BMD for 1879 {1870-1880} but The Register of Accounts of Wages and Effects of Deceased Seamen - received and disposed of gives - for 1876 - Henry Maxwell died aged 42yrs on 01-01-1876 of enteritis on board the ship TAGUS {ON 65582} 'at sea'. The report came from Southampton {So'ton}. I wonder if SKS could give a few details of from where it sailed and of the ship. Also, if he was a naval pensioner, why was he back at sea ? Some early crackdown on benefits ? or was a review of incapacity common ? BTW I have his Coastguard record which fits in nicely with the Census records: kids in the right towns at the right times. Graham

Hi Graham You say a Naval Pensioner i.e. not a Greenwich Pensioner, which suggests that he was a time served pensioner rather than someone who was invalided out of the service, and might have been due for regular reviews of his entitlement to a pension. If he died in 1876 aged 42, that suggests he was born 1834, and could have joined the RN as a Boy, say about 1848 or 1853-4 as a man, when there was a demand for seamen following the start of the Crimea War, which might suggest that he was in the RN when the Admiralty introduced a revised system for qualifying for a pension in 1853, and a man would normally have qualified for a pension as long as he signed on for a Continuous Service Engagement, taking into account time served from the age of 18, after 20 years, subsequently revised circa 1886 to 22 years, so would not appear to be able to quite qualify under the usual rules then applicable by 1871, BUT looking at the new rules, available in the Navy List for Dec 1856, page 213, in Google Books, I note also that Pensions after 10 and 15 years service may be granted whenever their Lordships think proper to grant pensions after those terms of service ! So given Admiralty approval it looks as though he could have qualified for a naval pension by 1871, or even earlier, and if that was the case I would imagine that the pension would be less than the full rate ie if one served the full 20 years, and pensions being what they were in those days, ie not inflation linked etc., and less than the full pension, he might have needed to supplement his pension and joined the merchant service : alternatively, and probably less likely, but it wasn't unknown for men to blot their copybook and to get into trouble with the law, and for the Admiralty to hear about it and stop their pension, period, if it was thought that they had bought the Navy into disrepute. A couple of thoughts for your consideration. Regards Paul On Thu, 28 May 2015 15:51:46 +0100, Graham Read via <mariners@rootsweb.com> wrote: >One of my ancestors had an odd career. Started out in the Royal Navy >{Seaman 1857}; then Coastguard {1861}; Naval Pensioner ( 1871); Seaman >Merchant Service {1874} and deceased by 1879. > >I coundn't find his death in Free BMD for 1879 {1870-1880} but The Register >of Accounts of Wages and Effects of Deceased Seamen - received and disposed >of gives - for 1876 - Henry Maxwell died aged 42yrs on 01-01-1876 of >enteritis on board the ship TAGUS {ON 65582} 'at sea'. The report came >from Southampton {So'ton}. > >I wonder if SKS could give a few details of from where it sailed and of the >ship. >Also, if he was a naval pensioner, why was he back at sea ? Some early >crackdown on benefits ? or was a review of incapacity common ? > >BTW I have his Coastguard record which fits in nicely with the Census >records: kids in the right towns at the right times. > >Graham > >------------------------------- >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