Greetings ladies and gentlemen,

I am a new member here and I've found this forum by chance only when I decided to check several watches I possess.
I do not call my self a collector as most of the time pieces I possess belonged to my family for several generations and the only serious collection I really casually maintain is of nautical paraphernalia.

My question is this:
I own through my father who was a captain on merchant ships an EMT deck watch which according to the markings belonged to Royal Navy.
Is it possible to locate through serial number on which vessel this watch was on board?

I suspect that most probably this deck watch was sometime was sold as a surplus
My father told me when I was young that this watch belonged to a vessel he was on board and went for scrap but unfortunately back then I was not interested in provenance and such details.
My mother recalls that indeed once He was a captain on a vessel which was previously a WWII military ship but she does not recall the name of it.

There is a Thomas Cook certificate which indicates the RN number (1071) and the vessel which belonged which was M/S Vulcan.
Under such name I find only one M/Trawler VULCAN which was stationed in Mediterranean during the war but I severely doubt that this watch belonged to her as she was scrapped in 1965 and the Cook certificate was issued in 1971.

I include photos of the watch

Cheers
Nick


EDIT:
Well it seems I am not in position to link photos from flicr here and neither to delete the post.
I will attach photos as soon as possible but with 222kb I think it will be a very bad quality.

Hello,
I believe the contact info for research of the archives at the Royal Maritime Museum at Greenwich is : research.rmg.co.uk
I believe they are not taking research at this time due to the Covid 19
I had the good fortune to visit the Museum and Greenwich last May. A definite “bucket list”.

Thanks for the info regarding RMG and the how to post photos info

Here are a few images of the watch for your reference

The Certificate

The back view

The mechanism.
The watch had heavy use throughout the years and it was serviced (mostly cleaning) many times.

Another view of the mechanism

HMS Vulcan was a Royal Navy trawler used as a depot ship for Coastal Forces, then later as a repair ship for a mine sweeping flotilla. I do not know when it was switched over to repair ship duty. She was built in 1937.

The H.S. 3 with the broad arrow between the S and the 3 on the back of your watch indicates it is a deck watch that has 15 jewels and a mmicrometer adjustable balance. The H.S. stands for Hydrographic Service which was the British organization responsible for testing these to make sure they kept proper time. The 4 digits above the center of the dial are the last 4 digits of the movement's serial number. If they do not match the last four digits of the serial number on the movement in that way then either the movement or the dial has been replaced at some point in its life.

Dear Jim thanks for the info.

I knew about the meaning of HS3 and that the watch was a deck watch.
In fact it was used as such on many vessels my father was captain and for many years.

I knew nothing about the serial number or the time piece specifics.Thank you

My first initial search on internet brought same info for this M/T VULCAN but I doubt that this watch belonged to this vessel. The Cooke certificate was issued in 1971
According to info I've found regarding the trawler, she was scrapped/demolished in 1965 somewhere in Romania. I find it odd that the watch which was onboard M/T VULCAN was after onboard on another "VULCAN" the odds are limited.

After her role as an M/T for RN, she was sold and served for many years as a fishing trawler in UK and same purpose for an Israeli firm. The only trawler my father ever served was around 1963 for a completely different shipping company so I do not think that they are connected.

So what I believe is that this watch belonged to a RN ship during war but the watch or maybe both ship (less likely) and watch were sold as surplus after the war.
It is very difficult to get info for merchant vessels unless they have a juicy/tragic story during their lifetime.
Limited info can be obtained through Lloyd's register book or similar registry books. But such books are ephemera. They reflect the International fleet for a specific period and they change very often.

Cheers
Nick

After a lot of searching finally I got some definite info regarding the provenance of the watch.

Probably belonged to a French owned vessel called VULCAIN build in 1960 12825 MTNS for "Soflumar" Tpts de Vins.
It was sold in 1965 to Phs van Ommeren (France) SA and then in 1970 to Crawford Sg Co Ltd London. The name of the vessel remained the same.
The watch came on board probably during that period because both Van Ommeren (or Omerons) were British or British related companies. The man who issued the certificate misspelled the name to VULCAN and that send me off tracks.
The vessel was subsequently sold to Greek shipowners and the name changed to MITSOS.
My father joined her then as a captain. Few months after he disembarked the vessel was foundered taking with her 2 from the crew.

Thanks for all the assistance

Cheers
Nick