marine death

[kylejustin]

i have the death cert for an uncle who died in 1915 on board a ship in the welsh channel. the 'last place of abode' states 40 moseley village birmingham autofogasta.

my query is, i know he must have been resident in birmingham, but googling 'autofogasta' which is the english spelling for antofogasta, which is a military base in chile. was he stationed in chile, and then died in the welsh channel on the way home to britain?

[merleyone]

There seems little prospect of your uncle having been stationed in Chile, if by that, you mean with UK forces, or Chilean forces if he was a UK national.
Antofagasta is, however, an important port for the extensive copper mining industry in that region of Chile and it is possible he worked there for that industry, or on the railways like many other ex pats. That would depend in the first instance in which direction the ship was headed, to or from Antofagasta. All speculation, of course, but if he was returning from Chile and depending on his age, he may have been returning to the UK to enlist as war had broken out the previous year. On the other hand, he might have been sailing to Chile to take up a post etc, or have been merely returning there from some home leave.
Do you know what his occupation was? Have you found him in the 1911 census and have you found any record of him sailing/migrating to Chile in that year or earlier?

merleyone








T

[kylejustin]

the death cert records him as a steward, he is recorded as crew. the death was in the marine death indices. i took that to mean he was in the navy?

[Janet]

Could he have been working for a cable laying company which did a lot of work around South America to include Chile in 1912? Many people were employed to lay cables and were often on board ships as operators/stewards. The following web site might give some clues as I know of one who worked in Cable and Wirelss Brazil in 1912. More googling might also help you.

http://atlantic-cable.com/Cableships/Silvertown/index.htm

Janet

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Steward suggests merchant navy/commercial operators.
If he had been in the Royal Navy, I think his rank would have been given, rather than steward, as "steward" is an occupation.
Was the cause of death of any significance?

Jay

[merleyone]

The Marine Indices cover deaths at sea, crew or passengers, more usually on merchant ships but also deaths on RN ships. The ship's name may provide a clue whether it was RN but more likely a merchant ship. Any merchant seaman had to be registered, so you may find a record for him on FMP.

merleyone

[Janet]

Steward suggests merchant navy/commercial operators.
If he had been in the Royal Navy, I think his rank would have been given, rather than steward, as "steward" is an occupation.
Was the cause of death of any significance?

Jay

I would agree with this as I have both RN and Merchant Navy ancestors and some of the Merchant Marines I have are stewards. I have never seen Royal Navy personnel referred to as stewards, but the stewards working for Cable companies often wore uniforms aboard Merchant ships which look very like RN uniforms, particilarly with regard to the Cable and Wireless company which would be worth a google.

There is the following about Cable and Wireles Chile 1912 but there will be many other references to this company so worth further searching.

http://images.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/EFacs/1915/reference/frus.frus1915.i0010.pdf

The records for Cable and Wireless are at TNA

If you think he was on a military base in Chile then he could have been working for the Wireless and Cable Company on the military base. If he was working for a cable company he would be backwards and forwards on merchant ships to where he worked and then back home, so life on board ship would be commonplace to him. 1915 would have been First W War and places like Chile wanted to remain neutral so you might need to research that side as well.

RN deaths are usually reported through the Army and Navy Regimental Indices which are now found on FMP through the Overseas Index. These records go back to approximately 1780.

Janet

[kylejustin]

the ship was the 'alice a. leigh' which seems to be a cargo ship. my man is not in the fmp indexes though. i know he was in the imperial yeomanry in the boer war, but does not appear in the 1911 census.

i have no idea if he could have been laying cables in chile. perhaps he had a home in chile, or maybe that was the last port he was in, so that's why it was in the address column?

[Janet in Yorkshire]

As Moseley Village is a part of Birmingham (UK) would that have been his "home address" and Antofogasta the port the ship had sailed from?

Can you find any of his relatives in the Birmingham (Warwickshire) area in 1911?

Jay

[merleyone]

The ship, Alice A Leigh, was a four masted steel hulled sailing vessel of 3000 tons, launched in the 1890s at Whitehaven, Cumbria, UK. Googling for 'ship, Alice A Leigh' throws up a wealth of sites with info and photos but the one that may be of most interest to you is yardyyardyyardy.blogspot.co.uk which has several posts on the ship under the title End of an Era: Alice A Leigh/Rewa. The final post is by a person whose husband's gt grandfather was Capt Allan Davison, captain of the ship 1900 -1917, and she says 'I have (copies of) the logs in his handwriting', and also gives her email address. (The ship was sold in 1917 and again in the 1920s before being scuttled in 1930 at Moturekareka Island in the Hauraki Gulf, NZ where the hulk remains visible.) It may be that the log contains some reference to your uncle in 1915 and would certainly provide information on the direction the ship was heading in.
Good luck.

merleyone

[kylejustin]

Can you find any of his relatives in the Birmingham (Warwickshire) area in 1911?

Jay

relatives are rather tricky. he married twice, the certs are on their way. mother vanishes into thin air along with her mother and a son after 1871. the father remarried, of which i can find no cert, and died in 1901. all the siblings are missing from most census after 1881. one was in the army (his family was in ireland), another 2 went to australia, and one vanishes upon arrival. and the last surviving brother left probate in 1930 but no death cert, and appears as a boarder in 1911. gentry family lol.

[kylejustin]

thank you merleyone, i had found that site, but not the email address. i will email her and see what pops up.

[merleyone]

Kylejustin.

Have sent you a PM.

merleyone

[keldon]

There's a couple of references to the ship for 1915 under arrivals and departures on the British Newspaper Archive. sometimes these show foreign destinations. Maybe worth a look to see if Chile is mentioned.

http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

[kylejustin]

oh keldon, they're on fmp, i'll take a look.

[kylejustin]

got in contact with the lady from the site about the 'alice a. leigh'. lovely woman, who had the ships logs (her ancestor was the captain), and she had a few references to my man, which she has sent me, along with pics of the ship, newspaper cuttings, and the pic of the captain and his wife. i sent her a pic of my man.

turns out my man signed up in anofogasta in 1914! now i have to figure out how he got to chile?!

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Quite a few Brits went off to Punta Arenas, Patagonia, in the 1890's, early 1900's.
I have a Norfolk chimney sweep (perhaps joined the navy) who married & had a child in the Falklands, then returned to Nofolk by 1901. In 1906 he & his family sailed from Liverpool to Valparaiso and settled in the Punta Arenas region, managing a sheep farm for a UK company. There seems to have been quite a thriving Eng/Scottish community working the sheep.
I nearly fell off my chair when a Punta Arenas link came up as a result of googling his name!

Jay

[kylejustin]

oh wow janet. that's interesting. i'm wondering if my guy was on another merchant ship to chile, though findmypast have nothing for him in their merchant navy records.

[Janet in Yorkshire]

What was the cause of death, Kyle?

I was wondering if he developed some medical condition and decided he wanted to get "home" to the UK? Signing on would have ensured an immediate and free passage.

Did the ship sail under the UK flag? I am intrigued by "Welsh Channel" - don't think that's the usual description given to that particular area of water.

Jay

[kylejustin]

the ship arrived in chile from hamburg. my man signed up, and then the ship went to seattle, where the ships logs say he was feeling ill and got some medicine from a doctor. then the ship headed for dublin, and he died of 'liver disease and paralysis' in the atlantic according to the co ordinates. my cousin looked them up, but i havn't yet. it was findmypast's marine deaths indices that said the death took place in 'the welsh channel'.

the illness was progressive, and only mentioned from the time the ship was in seattle. he claimed he was 32, but was actually 48. the illness is well covered in the logs, though i can't quite figure out what was wrong with him re liver. he had a few strokes too.