Question about ships manifest

[bell47]

Question about ship's manifest

Guy's I'm researching a wreck we found and the manifest says that it had "270 bales, cask, crates, &C of general merchandise. What is &C what's the "C" stand for? What would be considered general merchandise in 1875? Thanks, bell47

 

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[Darren in NC]

Re: Question about ship's manifest

It means et cetera (etc.)

 

[bell47]

Re: Question about ship's manifest

Thanks, I was kinda hoping it was some symbol for about 10 tons of gold bullion, oh well, thanks again anyway.bell47

 

[Salvor6]

Re: Question about ship's manifest

I thought it meant "Cargo."

 

[Darren in NC]

Re: Question about ship's manifest

"&C" is the old way of writing "and so forth" or et cetera. It doesn't mean cargo and has nothing to do with shipping at all.

But never ignore a manifest that lists "bales." It was a common to hide precious metal in the bales to avoid tax and move it secretly. Copper ingots were typical items when using this technique.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F0DE5DF1438E633A25756C0A9649D946596D6CF

 

[ivan salis]

Re: Question about ship's manifest

general cargo can be just about anything --food stuff --tools --crockery --firearms -- you name it --any and everything one might trade in bussiness trades --- high dollar gold or silver items if carried where generally spelled out on the manifest for customs reasons -- however smugglers often put items of value deep inside of bales of cotton to allow them to smuggling them in / out without paying customs duty on them. (see the copper ingots above)

 

[ScubaFinder]

Re: Question about ship's manifest

Bell, "general cargo" is also greatly influenced by which direction the ship was travelling. Goods travelling to the new world were much different than those going back to the old world.

 

[bell47]

Re: Question about ship's manifest

What about going from Canada to the U.S. during that time period. (Halifax,NS. to Portland, ME.)