Material relating to Upham's career in the Merchant Navy.

Box 1: Bridge Note, Night Order and Signal Log books, 1959-1970 (5 volumes). Membership book for The Navigators and Engineer Officers' Union, 1946-1968. File of British and Commonwealth Group Instructions to Masters, 1962-1972. File of memoranda concerning defects and repairs, relating to the vessels RICHMOND CASTLE, BARRON and ROXBURGH CASTLE, 1944-1945. Large envelope and file containing unsorted papers relating to Upham's engagements on Union-Castle Line and King Line vessels, circa 1951-1977. Including typescript memoranda on cargo stowage, voyage routine, crew duties, navigational observations, rates of pay and expenses. Also ephemera including a souvenir menu card and log extract from Voyage 163 of the CARNARVON CASTLE, 1958.

Box 2: National Association of Spotters' Clubs certificate, 1943. Certificates of Watchkeeping, Service and Conduct, 1948-1953. Small envelope containing Union-Castle Line notices of appointments and joining orders, 1944-1958. Sperry Gyroscope Co Ltd and S.G. Brown Ltd certificates for courses of instruction in the use of gyro compass and auto helmsman equipment, 1947 and 1952. Unsorted papers relating to Upham's engagements on the Union-Castle Line vessels ROWALLAN CASTLE and RIEBEECK CASTLE, 1959-1971. Including papers concerning arrangements for crews to return home following the delivery of the ships to shipbreakers at Kaohsiung in Taiwan, 1971. Also some papers relating to King Line vessels, including the KING ARTHUR, 1970. Envelope of Fox Photos Ltd photographs showing Upham as master of the ROWALLAN CASTLE during a school visit to the ship at King George V Dock, London, organised by the British Ship Adoption Society, 1959.

Box 3: Ministry of Transport Defence of Merchant Shipping Training Handbook, HMSO, 1953 (unfit for production due to mould). Envelopes containing additional material gifted by Upham numbered MSS/78/003 and MSS/83/123, see the individual records for more details.

Please contact archive staff for more information about ordering from this collection.

Administrative / biographical background
Upham was born at Taunton in Somerset in 1927. After attending Prior Park school, Bath, he began his seafaring career as a cadet on the training ship WORCESTER at Greenhithe. He started training as a deck officer with the Union-Castle Mail Steamship Co Ltd in 1944 and gained qualification as master mariner (certificate numbers 57051, 63338 and 72577). In the period 1955-1972 he was engaged on vessels operated by the Union-Castle Mail Steamship Co Ltd, Bowater Steamship Co Ltd and also the King Line, frequently on voyages to South Africa or the USA. After a period as Port Superintendent at Southampton, Upham left the merchant service and subsequently became first a Research Assistant, 1973, and then Assistant Keeper in the Department of Ships at the NMM between 1975 and 1982 before retiring to Somerset where he became parish clerk of Nynehead. He was also a Younger Brother of Trinity House. He died at home at Taunton on 2 July 2016.