Deck Officers & Engineers

The P&O Collection includes good individual career records of deck officers and engineers from the late 1840s until the mid 1950s.  Thereafter individual files were transferred first to a card index and then to separate folders for each individual, and these records have not been kept.  Please refer to series P&O/75 and P&O/76 at the National Maritime Museum.  For additional information, please consult section on ‘Seniority Lists’ and ‘Crew Lists’ on this webpage.

Surgeons

Surgeons are contained in the Officers ledgers and exist from the 1840s through the 1950s.  These records can be found in series P&O/75 at the National Maritime Museum.

Pursers

Records for Pursers do not exist although there are a few volumes of reports on performance of pursers from about 1880 to 1953, which are located in series P&O/77 at the National Maritime Museum.

Stewards

Records of Stewards-in-Charge exist from approximately 1880 to 1953.  There are ledgers of stewards’ careers between the 1890s and the 1930s in which each individual may appear several times as they were engaged on a voyage-by-voyage basis.  This is the case even if their continuing employment lasted for several years.  There are separate index volumes, however because of gaps in the files, the coverage of career records and indexes do not exactly coincide: an individual may be indexed, but the record no longer exists, or he or she may be in a ledger but not in the index and therefore effectively untraceable.  In order to locate a steward, please refer to series P&O/77 at the National Maritime Museum.

Petty Officers

Petty Officers such as boatswains, gunners and carpenters are covered by two volumes covering the years between 1910s and 1949 which are located in series P&O/78 at the National Maritime Museum.

Ordinary European Seamen

There are no records of ordinary European Seamen in the P&O archives.

Asian Seamen

There are no records of Asian Crew in the P&O archives although the death of an Asian crew member may have been recorded in the P&O Nautical Reports.  Please refer to the Ships’ Movements Research Guide for further information.