Saturday, August 4, 2012


When a merchant seaman finishes a voyage he gets a certificate of discharge from the captain. This certificate states when and where the voyage began and date and port of discharge. It also states what rank the sailor was sailing as during that voyage. Going through all the various papers that my father saved over the years, and he through nothing away, I came across all of his certificates of discharge marking every voyage throughout his career beginning with the Norwegian ships he sailed.
In the later years of my father's career as a merchant sea captain, my mother occasionally went with him as he sailed up or down the Pacific Coast. Going through his many papers and memories I came across this Certificate of Discharge that my father filled out with the dates and portage of the trip and my mom listed in the rating as "Captain's Captive"
I thought this was so cute!

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