# My Ggrandfather's career at sea 1892 - 1936



## KShips (Sep 14, 2007)

Hello everyone,

For the last 5 years I have been trying to trace my great-grandfather's career at sea. I found very good information from different archives in the UK and Malta and I am quite enjoying it.

So my ggrandfather went out to sea on a Maltese sailing vessel in 1892 when he was still 13 years old. In 1902 he obtained his 2nd Mate ticket from Malta and later in October 1913 he got the Chief Mate ticket, also from Malta. I have all the details of the ships he worked on from 1892 till 1900 - the last one in 1900 being a Cunard cargo ship, the 'Cherbourg'. However I still cannot find any information on which ships he worked from 1900 to 1913. The register of the Chief Mate ticket that I found from the UK National Archives did not provide any information about his seatime.

After that he went to Cardiff to sign on ships from there. It was very common for Maltese seamen. Again, I have no idea on which ships he sailed except until 1918 - 1919, when he was 2nd Mate on the 'Clematis'. This is because there are no surviving records for seamen between 1913 and 1918 in the National Archives at Kew. Also I cannot continue trace backwards from Crew Lists and Agreements since his previous ship was the 'Kerlew', an American ship. My ggrandfather's name could not be found on the records they in the National Archives in the US.
Also, on the back cover if his discharge book (the last surviving bit), there are four dates under a stamp 'CARDIFF'. One of them corresponds to the 'Clematis' sign on. Yet no names or ON's are written beside the dates.

In 1919, my ggrandfather came back to Malta and in 1920 he started working on Maltese sailing vessels as Secondo, ie Second in Command. I found out that at least in 1924 he was in command of the sailing vessel 'Massimo Padre'. He remained in command of various other Maltese sailing vessels until he died in February 1936.

Interestingly, from the website www.plimsollshipdata.org (the Lloyd's Registers for 1930 - 1945) underneath the entry for the sailing vessel 'Giuseppe Padre', I found my ggrandfather's name, 'A. Camilleri' - Andrea Camilleri. Does anyone know if this could lead to any records about my ggrandfather please? I still have no idea if he achieved the Master's ticket or not.

I would be very grateful for any help about any part of this research.

And finally, I would like to send my Christmas Greetings to everyone from Malta!

Thank you very much!

Regards,
Kenneth


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