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AM TRYING TO FIND THE CREW OF THIS SHIP THANKS

BESSIE A. CROOKS - 1913-1917
Official Number: 131203
Master: Captain A. Crooks
Rigging: wood, 3 masts Schooner; 1 deck
Tonnage: 241 tons gross, 188 under deck and 199 net
Dimensions: 110.6 feet long, 28.6 foot beam and holds 10.4 feet deep
Construction: 1913, D.C. Mulhall in Nova Scotia
Owners: A. Crooks
Port of registry: Bridgetown, Barbadoes MISSING Jan. 1917

Neither TNA catalogue, or Newfoundland Maritime Archive have an entry for this ship - I searched using the ships number.

Hiya, HH -- was it you posted the mesage here?

http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/Mariners/2002-09/1031134130

(googled)

The info there looks a little different:

"... Captain, Master Mariner, Frederick Walley (F.L. Walley), Hantsport, Nova Scotia ..."

It seems that Crooks was the owner, Walley the master.

Looking at the Canadian censuses, there's a Fred Walley in NS in 1901, born c1851 in Halifax. There are other Walleys in NS in 1911, no Fred. A mariner would likely have been at sea, I suppose, and I don't think Cdn censuses accounted for them.

There's a Fred Whalley well inland in Quebec in 1901 and 1911, born c1880 in England.


But aha; in 1911:


Name: Bessie Crooks
Gender: Female
Marital Status: Married
Age: 45
Birth Date: Mar 1866
Birthplace: Nova Scotia
Family Number: 43
Relation to Head of House: Wife
Spouse's Name: Arthur
Tribal: Scotch (Scotish)

Name: Arthur Crooks
Gender: Male
Marital Status: Married
Age: 43
Birth Date: Nov 1867
Birthplace: Nova Scotia
Family Number: 43
Relation to Head of House: Head
Spouse's Name: Bessie
Tribal: English

Province: Nova Scotia
District: Guysborough
District Number: 44
Sub-District Number: 17
Place of Habitation: Spanish Ship Bay
Census Year: 1911
Page: 5

Arthur Crooks 43
Bessie Crooks 45
Hilda Crooks 18
Hazel Crooks 16
Wilfrid Crooks 15
Roby Crooks 13
Sarah Crooks 11
Clarence Crooks 9
Maud Crooks 8
Maxwell Crooks 4


I don't know whether that info will be of any use.


Meanwhile, it's possible you could get some assistance from the Maritime History Archive at Memorial University in St John's, Newfoundland:

http://www.mun.ca/mha/

You may well have already tried there. I did search that Official Number and there were no holdings.

For a tiny bit of FL Walley stuff, go here:

http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/

and put "walley" in the search box at the top.

Actually, the results all seem to be the same thing, an oil painting:

Brigs and Barques:
Images and Artworks from the Age of Sail
"Barque Bertie Bigelow, Yarmouth, N.S.; F.L.Walley, Master"

No further info, but the archives might be able to provide some, e.g. date.

A different painting -- two, actually -- of the same vessel here, both dated 1878:

http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/pm.php?id=record_detail&fl=0&lg=English&ex=00000269&rd=140003
http://www.lac-bac.gc.ca/cin/026019-119.01-e.php?&nl_id_nbr=4363&&PHPSESSID=n1vd2ekk82o118tq237edg1km3

Google "bertie bigelow".

If you could get an official number for that vessel (you seem to know more about that sort of thing), you might find a crew list that would include Fred Walley.

Ah, I see someone already has a lot of Walley family info:

http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/NOVA-SCOTIA/2002-08/1029702888


But just in case you don't have the actual Cdn census entry, this is 1901:


Name: Fred L Walley
Gender: Male
Marital Status: Married
Age: 49
Birth Date: 20 Jun 1851
Birthplace: Ns
Relation to Head of House: Head
Spouse's Name: Fanny L
Racial or Tribal Origin: English
Nationality: Canadian
Religion: Methodist
Occupation: M Mariner
Province: Nova Scotia
District: Hants
District Number: 34
Sub-District: Hantsport
Sub-District Number: F-1
Family Number: 70
Page: 7

Fred L Walley 49
Fanny L Walley 48
Campbell E Walley 22
Percy B Walley 14

Have you seen this record for Edward in the 1881 English census?


Name: Edward Walley
Age: 25
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1856
Relation: Head
Spouse's Name: Charlotte
Gender: Male
Where born: Windsor Nsb Subject
(i.e. Windsor, NS, B. Subject)

Civil Parish: Liverpool
County/Island: Lancashire
Country: England

Street address: 20 Norfolk St.
Condition as to marriage: Married
Occupation: Mariner

Registration district: Liverpool
Sub-registration district: St Thomas
ED, institution, or vessel: 12

Charlotte Walley 25
Edward Walley 25
Henry F. Walley 2
Mary E. Walley 4

The posts I'm seeing elsewhere on the internet, indicating no info about Edward post 1882, may be very old, but this is more fun than working.


Name: Edward Arthur Walley + Charlotte Reven
Year of Registration: 1879
Quarter of Registration: Jan-Feb-Mar
District: Liverpool (1837-1934)
County: Lancashire
Volume: 8b
Page: 83

thanks all

my great great grandparents George Rodney Johnson and Sarah Vlaughn lost four grandsons at one time on a schooner called the 'Bessie A. Crooks', which was lost on January 26th, 1917 in the Gulf of Pernambuco, Brazil

Ah - so it's not the Walleys your interest is focused on. The people whose posts I saw elsewhere on the net aren't you then, I guess!

Are you here in Canada?

Do you know whether the vessel was part of the Mercantile Marine during WWI?

If so, there is this database:

http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=history/secondwar/atlantic/merchant_search

It appears that it wasn't -- there is no return on a search for vessel Crooks, and the four returns for surname Johnson were all on different vessels.

THANKS

I AM IN LIVERPOOL