Service documents including apprenticeship indenture, Certificate of Competency as Master and Continuous Certificate of Discharge. King Edward VII Nautical School notebook, 1925. Board of Trade notice concerning malaria among seamen, 1937. British Tanker Co Ltd log abstracts for the BRITISH INVENTOR, 1939. Pilot chart of the North Atlantic, published by the Hydrographic Office of the US Navy Department, December 1942. Copies of printed messages to masters of merchant vessels taking part in Operation Overlord, 1944. Tables for navigation, transport of petroleum products and calculation of wages. Various manuals for shipmasters, Board of Trade examination guides, souvenir brochures from Trieste and Trinidad, booklets on the history of Jersey. Two mounted photographs of tankers. Printed books: 'The Fish Gate' by Michael Graham, Faber and Faber Ltd, London, 1943. 'When Ships Go Down: More Wonders of Salvage' by David Masters, Eyre & Spottiswoode Ltd, London, 1941.

Administrative / biographical background
Ainsworth was born at Parkstone in Dorset and first went to sea as an apprentice with the King Line Ltd in 1912. He qualified as master in 1925 (certificate number 0013092). Throughout a period of 23 years he had engagements on vessels owned by the British Tanker Co Ltd, the shipping subsidiary of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co Ltd. He took part in operations in support of the Normandy landings in 1944 and was discharged from the Merchant Navy on medical grounds in the following year.