Exercise book with notes and calculations, circa 1925-1930

Voyage records: Exercise book containing notes on navigation and stability, with calculations, circa 1925-1930. During this period Thompson was an apprentice and then a junior deck officer on the TARANSAY (1919) and other vessels owned by the Sutherland Steamship Co. Ltd., Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Administrative / biographical background
Thompson was born at South Shields in 1905, the eldest son of John Heslop Thompson and his wife Ellen Thompson née Hutchings. As a teenager he worked locally as a butcher’s assistant before going to sea. Between 1925 and 1935 he was an apprentice and then junior deck officer on the TARANSAY (1919) and the RASSAY ex HATUMET (1905), both belonging to the fleet of tramps operated by the Sutherland Steamship Co. Ltd. He joined the Asiatic Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. as a third officer in 1931 and qualified as master while based in Calcutta. He was employed as master with the company throughout the period 1945-1956. After retirement he purchased and ran a newsagent business in South Shields, where he died in 1991.