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  • Distressed Seamen

    Help needed please to understand under what circumstances this description would be used for seamen. I note that they are travelling with no passport. Could someone explain please?
    I found an example while browsing other passengers.
    eg.while looking at record for J.H.BELCHAMBER on ship CRONTES docking in Tilbury on 24 May 1959.

  • #2
    Distressed seaman could be one who had fallen ill abroad, say between engagements, or been robbed, or in some other way, erm, distressed, lol.

    Basically I think it means "repatriation of a seaman who could not otherwise get home through no fault of his own".

    OC

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    • #3
      What a small world :smilee:

      Last night I attended a Maritime Memorial Service in the chapel in Tilbury Port. Its organised by the Ports and The Mission to Seafarers. (Son was playing in the band)

      Doesn't help you with your query but I thought it was a coincidence. I wonder whether Mr Belchamber was helped by them.
      Jackie

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      • #4
        Thank you for your thoughts.
        Here's a link to the page....
        - Ancestry.co.uk

        No idea why JHB is tagged onto the end of the list.
        Jackie
        I haven't worked out who he is yet, but looked for a friend who is interested in that surname, anywhere.
        It is a coincidence.

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        • #5
          Gwyn

          He would be tacked onto the end of the passenger list because he didn't pay the fare. He may have worked part of his passage home if he was able to.

          OC

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          • #6
            A Merchant seaman once explained to me that he had been on two or more ships that were sunk in the war and that in general if a ship goes down you are then off the payroll and it is up to the individual to do whatever he can to get home.
            He was once stranded for some weeks and eventually got a lift as crew on a Dutch boat were he quickly had to learn the language.. he then lived in Holland for several years and married a Dutch lady.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by colin taylor View Post
              A Merchant seaman once explained to me that he had been on two or more ships that were sunk in the war and that in general if a ship goes down you are then off the payroll and it is up to the individual to do whatever he can to get home.
              He was once stranded for some weeks and eventually got a lift as crew on a Dutch boat were he quickly had to learn the language.. he then lived in Holland for several years and married a Dutch lady.
              Yes - I recall coming across this in naval fiction. That extraordinarily unjust arrangement that, if the ship goes down, you also lose your employment status, so don't get paid any more!

              Christine
              Researching: BENNETT (Leics/Birmingham-ish) - incl. Leonard BENNETT in Detroit & Florida ; WARR/WOR, STRATFORD & GARDNER/GARNAR (Oxon); CHRISTMAS, RUSSELL, PAFOOT/PAFFORD (Hants); BIGWOOD, HAYLER/HAILOR (Sussex); LANCASTER (Beds, Berks, Wilts) - plus - COCKS (Spitalfields, Liverpool, Plymouth); RUSE/ROWSE, TREMEER, WADLIN(G)/WADLETON (Devonport, E Cornwall); GOULD (S Devon); CHAPMAN, HALL/HOLE, HORN (N Devon); BARRON, SCANTLEBURY (Mevagissey)...

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              • #8
                Is this Brittish navy or possibly merchant men retired (desserted) from the royal navy, if so than it does not suprise me. They were renowed for thier stricture.

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                • #9
                  A Deserter would not be sent back on a passenger ship, nor would he be described as a Seaman in distress!

                  OC

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Olde Crone Holden View Post
                    A Deserter would not be sent back on a passenger ship, nor would he be described as a Seaman in distress!

                    OC
                    He certainly would be if found out.

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                    • #11
                      Thank you for your comments.
                      'Not paid his fare?'....I'll have to find out more about JHB possibly hitching a lift from Australia.
                      I wonder how the 'distressed' men did lose their passports?

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                      • #12
                        If you were shipwrecked, your passport would probably go down with the ship.

                        You could have been mugged and robbed - quite a common occurence for sailors on leave, lol!

                        For some reason, I vaguely think it was up to the Captain of a ship to decide whether he would take a distressed seaman aboard or not. Obviously, if the ship picked up drowning sailors at the site of a shipwreck then the Captain didn't have to think hard.

                        I think Distressed Sailors was an international sort of agreement as by the nature of the job, a sailor could be stranded in some very strange places without his fare home, and the major shipping lines had a mutual interest in returning sailors to their home port.

                        OC

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                        • #13
                          Part of the reason for Seamen's Missions in many ports all over the world was and still is to give help to distressed seamen.
                          Uncle John - Passed away March 2020

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