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Thomas Scarrow, Master Mariner: Voyage Record
This section presents all the information discovered about Thomas's voyages during his time in the Merchant Service, which started in 1857 and ended with his death at sea in 1871.
At the time that Thomas first went to sea (in 1857) the Register of Seaman's Tickets series III had just stopped, and version IV was not to start until 1917. However, the Certificates of Competency for Masters and Mates did continue, so the record for Thomas from 1864, the year in which he qualified as 2nd Mate is well documented. For the earlier years, reference is made to the claims and testimonials for his officers certificates (Mate and Master). Taken together, we get good picture of his voyages.
BT122/29 Certificates of Competency Masters and Mates Foreign
This volume gives a very complete summary of Thomas's voyages between 1861 and 1871. The first page covers 1861 to 1868:
There are fewer abbreviations in BT122 than in some of the other series, however those that are used can be decoded as follows: 1M=1st Mate; 2M=2nd Mate; C=Master; 62=Liverpool; 64=London; 98=Waterford; The second page of BT122 covers the period 1869-1871, and also records Thomas's death by drowning on the 21st September 1871.
Again, the abbreviations used are as follows: C=Master; 62=Liverpool; 64=London;
The information from the various tickets, as well as data derived from crew lists, newspapers and Lloyds List have been combined to produce a voyage history shown below. The rank has been abbreviated to A, S, 1M, 2M and C which correspond to Apprentice, Seaman, 2nd Mate, 1st Mate and Master respectively. The passage is the length of the voyage in days.
| Rank | Ship | From | Dep | To | Arr | Passage | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Kamehameher IV | Liverpool | 17 Apr 1857 | Honolulu | 22 Aug 1857 | 127 | Master: John Garry. Wilton Glover went AWOL on 21-22 Apr, again on 22 Aug and 26 Aug; Arrested at 6pm on 26 Aug and sent to prison; Released from prison on 31 Aug. |
| A | Kamehameher IV | Honolulu | 19 Sep 1857 | Valparaiso | Oct 1857 | [30] | On 12 Oct it was blowing a heavy gale and high seas - Nicholas Pardiff fell overboard and drowned. |
| A | Kamehameher IV | Valparaiso | 15 Nov 1857 | Caldera | 29 Dec 1857 | 44 | Ennis Bridgeman, John Dittman and Charles Smith deserted on 11 Jan, taking the ship's boat with them which was later found on the rocks. |
| A | Kamehameher IV | Caldera | 19 Jan 1858 | Swansea | 15 Apr 1858 | 86 | James Lennox was ill with stricture caused by venereal disease and in doctors hands from 15 Dec until 19 Jan. |
| A | Kamehameher IV | Liverpool | 12 Jun 1858 | Shanghai | 28 Nov 1858 | 169 | On 26 Nov, Peter Gess burst a blood vessel and died - he had had a bad cough since 20 Jun. |
| A | Kamehameher IV | Shanghai | Jan 1859 | Foo Chow | 7 Feb 1859 | [15] | Dennis William Saunders, alias James William Graudison caused continual problems from 26 Aug 1858, until his final discharge on Feb 11th 1859. See account here. |
| A | Kamehameher IV | Foo Chow | 28 Feb 1859 | London | 30 Jun 1859 | 122 | Master: John Garry |
| A | Corea | Liverpool | 30 Sep 1859 | Hong Kong (Whampoa) | 22 Jan 1860 | 114 | Master: John Garry |
| A | Corea | Macao | 28 Mar 1860 | Liverpool | 30 Jul 1860 | 124 | Cargo from China was 748,300lbs of tea. |
| S | Corea | Liverpool | 19 Sep 1860 | Hong Kong (Whampoa) | 18 Jan 1861 | 121 | |
| S | Corea | Macao | 12 Mar 1861 | Gravesend | 8 Jul 1861 | 118 | Cargo from China was 759,000lbs of tea. |
| 2M | Eastern Chief | Liverpool | 28 Aug 1861 | Mazatlan | Feb 1862 | ||
| 2M | Eastern Chief | Mazatlan | Mar 1862 | Guaymas | Apr 1862 | ||
| 2M | Eastern Chief | Guaymas | May 1862 | Liverpool | 2 Oct 1862 | ||
| 1M | Athelston | Liverpool | 22 Nov 1862 | Valparaiso | 24 Mar 1863 | 122 | Master: James Blaxter. 5 Feb 1863: James McGowan lost overboard. 12 Mar 1863: William Wilson lost overboard. |
| 1M | Athelston | Valparaiso | 2 Apr 1863 | Liverpool | 29 Sep 1863 | 180 | 27 Apr 1863: Joseph Kelly went AWOL and returned at 8am on the 28th. |
| 1M | Athelston | Liverpool | 11 Nov 1863 | Singapore | 10 Apr 1864 | 150 | Master: William Russell |
| 1M | Athelston | Singapore | 11 May 1864 | Liverpool | 16 Oct 1864 | 158 | |
| 1M | Braganza | Liverpool | 17 Dec 1864 | Bahia | 21 Jan 1865 | 35 | Master: Patrick McClidie |
| 1M | Braganza | Bahia | 28 Feb 1865 | Paraiba | 16 Mar 1865 | 16 | |
| 1M | Braganza | Paraiba | 30 Mar 1865 | Liverpool | 5 May 1865 | 36 | |
| C | Teesdale | London | 5 Jul 1865 | Simons Town | 30 Sep 1865 | 87 | |
| C | Teesdale | Simons Town | 23 Oct 1865 | Cape Town | 30 Oct 1865 | 7 | |
| C | Teesdale | Cape Town | 22 Dec 1865 | London | 4 Mar 1866 | 76 | |
| C | Teesdale | London | 30 Apr 1866 | Penang | 20 Oct 1866 | 173 | The wages of James Wallace and John Johnston were reduced from those of AB to OS due lack of competence. |
| C | Teesdale | Penang | New York | 19 Feb 1867 | James Wallace, C. Brinn and George Smith sent to house of correction in Penang for 8-12 weeks of hard labour for refusing duties. Oct 31: Edward Bess, Peter Budham and John Johnstone were put on board by the police. Edward Bess and John Johnstone in irons for committing an assault on me at the police station. I asked them if they were going to return to their duty they did. | ||
| C | Teesdale | New York | 13 Mar 1867 | Waterford | 19 Apr 1867 | 36 | Peter Budham, John Wilson (apprentice) and Samuel Leah Sutton deserted in New York. |
| C | Teesdale | Liverpool | 12 Jul 1867 | Rio de Janeiro | 14 Sep 1867 | 64 | John Slater deserted in Rio. |
| C | Teesdale | Rio de Janeiro | 16 Nov 1867 | New Orleans | 25 Jan 1868 | 70 | Phillip Beer, John Slater and Henry Pike deserted in New Orleans |
| C | Teesdale | New Orleans | London | 7 Apr 1868 | |||
| C | Teesdale | Liverpool | 10 Jun 1868 | Montevideo | 24 Aug 1868 | 75 | John Wilson re-engaged as an apprentice. |
| C | Teesdale | Montevideo | 10 Oct 1868 | Buenos Aires | 14 Oct 1868 | 4 | |
| C | Teesdale | Buenos Aires | 10 Dec 1868 | Antwerp | 15 Feb 1868 | 67 | |
| C | Teesdale | Antwerp | 2 Mar 1868 | London | 8 Mar 1868 | 6 | |
| C | Teesdale | London | 17 May 1869 | Singapore | 11 Sep 1869 | 117 | John Wilson promoted from Apprentice to 2nd Mate. |
| C | Teesdale | Singapore | 7 Oct 1869 | Bangkok | 13 Dec 1869 | 67 | |
| C | Teesdale | Bangkok | 7 Jan 1870 | Bombay | 14 Mar 1870 | 66 | |
| C | Teesdale | Bombay | 28 Mar 1870 | Colombo | 12 Apr 1870 | 15 | |
| C | Teesdale | Colombo | 29 Apr 1870 | London | 9 Sep 1870 | 133 | |
| C | Invincible | London | 11 Mar 1871 | Adelaide | 18 Jun 1871 | 99 | May 20: George Wallace found drunk and unfit to work. It was ascertained that he took two cases of liquor from the cargo hold. Jun 26 to Jul 14: Seven members of the crew deserted in Adelaide, four of them on the same day, Jul 4th. |
| C | Invincible | Adelaide | 15 Jul 1871 | Portland | 17 Aug 1871 | 33 | Aug 17: William Henry Raines refused his duties by not working after 6 O'clock. Aug 18: He was taken before magistrate and sentenced to 3 days imprisonment and forfeited 2 days pay. |
| C | Invincible | Portland | 22 Aug 1871 | Liverpool | 25 Nov 1871 | 95 | Liverpool, Nov 25, arrived: Invincible, Adelaide. Aug 25: Richard Walker refused to work, citing an injured leg but this was believed to be spurious. All crew looked at his leg and concurred. Was given only bread and water until his return to duty. 21 Sep: Master Thomas Scarrow washed overboard in heavy seas 35W off Cape Horn. A more detailed account can be seen here. 22 Sep until Oct 14: Peter Alston suffered from swollen right leg and dislocated knee and was unable to carry out his duties. |
A more detailed description of Thomas's voyages, which includes the names of all the other crew members transcribed from crew lists can be found here.
To view the next page about Thomas Scarrow which deals with his last voyage aboard Invincible, click here.
