Crew of the Carpathia

[Gill]

There is a photo on this site of my great uncle Percy Bernard Barnett, Assistant Purser. Does anyone know who posted this, please? I can't decipher it. Does anyone know anything more about Percy Barnett?

 

[Dave Gittins]

The photo was supplied by Senan Molony, an Irish journalist. He has access to all sorts of old material. It looks like something from an old newspaper.
Here's his signature from when he signed on Carpathia.

 

[Robert T. Paige]

Just curious :
What is the meaning of the stamped " Dis A not produced " ?

 

[Steven Christian]

In the medical community DIS is often used for the word disease. It could have something to do with medical records. All of us here that were in the miltary know about shot records. But I don't know if that was the case in 1912. I'm not sure when vaccinations became common for seaman. "Dis A" might have been a general health record or something. The other possibility for DIS might be "date in service". Thats from an anacronym list I looked up.

 

[Dave Gittins]

Wrong! It refers to the seaman's Continuous Certificate of Discharge, a little book containing his employment history. It was supposed to be produced when signing on, but often it wasn't. Give me a little time and I'll post one from Carpathia.

 

[Steven Christian]

Ok I learned something. Yes post it. I would like to see it. Found this poking around the net.
Its pretty well covered in this document. Dis A = Discharge book and or number.

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/records/ifa-merchant-navy-seamen-and-officers-1913-1972.pdf

 

[Dave Gittins]

Some of my files are a bit big to post, but this should do. It's inner pages from the record of Samuel Ackerley, one of the cooking crew.

 

[Steven Christian]

Some of my files are a bit big to post, but this should do. It's inner pages from the record of Samuel Ackerley, one of the cooking crew.

View attachment 45241

Interesting. Thanks for posting it. So in the merchant navy did the seaman keep posession of that or was it given back to him when he left the ship for a new one? In the US Navy we turned over our records to whatever command we went to and they kept them.

 

[Gill]

Thank you so much. Probably more queries to come!

 

[Dave Gittins]

I believe that the practice was for the crew to present their books on joining the ship on sailing day, as distinct from signing on day, a few days earlier. The books were held in the purser's office until the voyage ended and the captain signed them. Notice how many rubber stamps were used. When you have hundreds in the crew you need to speed things up. Notice Captain Rostron's big signature stamp.

 

[Jim Currie]

All seamen had them. It was called a Discharge Book. I still have mine. Later versions described the voyage and had 2 columns for a Character report...Ability and Conduct. The back page were used by the Superintendent of a Mercantile Marine Office and contained sea time records and special stamps