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ID on copper sheeting stamp

Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2018 6:14 pm
by Bully1970
Hi,

First post! thanks for the add.

I found a piece of copper sheeting on the beach recently, it has a stamp with this written on it

MR
WARR'D
Jan(y)1794
32

Nearby a broad arrow is also stamped so I assume a RN vessel which was fitted or refitted in 1794, any ideas on yard/builder? also how to try and get teh name fo the ship.

Thanks in advance

Re: ID on copper sheeting stamp

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 12:41 am
by Navclio
"WARR'D" might mean "Warranted"
Was it really stamped
<Capital Jay><ay><enn><left parenthesis><wye><right parenthesis><one><seven><nine><four> ??

If so, that might be when the sheet was made, or when it was "warranted." If so, it might have been used later than 1794.

Although the British Ordnance Board numbered artillery barrels and the navy kept records of which ones, by number, were put on board each ship, there wasn't much reason to keep track of individual sheets of copper, so it is highly unlikely that the number on the sheet you found is unique or can be traced to a particular ship, even if it identified a batch and the entire batch was all used on one ship.

If there are any records of coppering at this level of detail, they would presumably be in the Admiralty series in the British National Archives in Kew, London. However, I think it's more likely that you could find records by ship than that you could find records by individual copper sheets or batches of them. In other words, if you suspected the sheet came from a particular ship, there might just possibly be a record of the batch(es) of sheets used. They might be organized by dockyard, so you would have to know where the ship in question was coppered initially during building or recoppered during a refit.

Best bet is to visit the British National Archives Web site and search for coppering records there.

The could be from a ship that drove ashore and was wrecked near where you found it, or it might have grounded, torn off some of the copper, but then have gotten off. You don't say anything about where this "beach" was, so we can't give you any advice on identifying ships that were wrecked thereabouts in 1794 or later.

Time's up!