Merchant Navy Seamen records 1835-1857 - findmypast
 

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/search/merchant-navy-seamen

It seems you have to search the whole database including 1918-1941 too.

Wow! I've found several of my 3xg-uncles and a 4xg-uncle on there already. Middle names don't seem to be indexed even if they appear on the document, going by what I've looked at so far, but the documents can be very informative, giving date and place of birth, physical description, place of residence, and date when they first went to sea.
Or it could just give name, age, place of birth and place of residence.

It costs 20 credits to view a transcription plus the image.

Also, beware - some of the records that you can use 20 credits to view are just index entries! I'm not sure how you know whether it's the index or the actual document until you use your credits and view, except that it seems the documents come up before the indexes on the list of matches. But at least if you get an index you get to view all the names at once.

Thanks for posting this, Kite.

I'm thrilled - I've viewed William Kirk's ticket at long last.

Jay

As a general rule the index pages don't give a DoB.