Help with name of ship and job role

[Devsom]

My 3x great-grandfather Ernest Oliver Roberts was born in Devonport, Plymouth in 1861. He joined the Royal Navy and I have found him on the 1881 census.

1. According to the Ancestry website the ship he was on was the ‘Fautoun’ but the ED, institution or vessel was ‘Fautowo’. I am including a photo of the original image because I’ve looked for a ship of that name and can’t find it so it so is the transcription correct.

2. Ernest’s rank/rating appears to say ‘Car Crew’. Can anybody confirm that that is what it says and if so what did a ‘car crew’ person do?

I’ve included pictures of the census

Thanks

[Pam Downes]

If it's any help, FMP say the name of the ship is Fantonee.

Pam

[Pam Downes]

And I know it's a few years earlier, but in 1811 there was a ship called Fantome.

Pam

[Pamelawagster]

There is a Navy service record on Ancestry which states his profession as Carpenter.

[christanel]

Fantome class — 6 ships, 1873–1874

Fantome (1873) – sold 1889
Albatross (1873) – scrapped 1889
Daring (1874) – sold 1889
Egeria (1873) – sold 1911
Flying Fish (1873) – sold 1888
Sappho (1873) – sold 1887

See the list here

Christina

[helachau]

Naval & Military Gazette & Weekly Chronicle of the United Service, 6 April 1881

Stations of the Royal Navy in Commission
With the dates of appointment of the Officers in Command
Fantome, 4, sc composite sloop, Commander W C Kerslake, 1880, North America and West Indies

[Pam Downes]

Occasionally I get hit with

The newspapers often reported ship's journeys (I was able to trace my granddad's journey from China back to England), so I did a quick search of the British Newspaper Archive. The ship is definitely called Fantome, as an article in the Shipping and Merchantile Gazette for 14 February 1881 states that she was in the area of the West Indies. That date is about six weeks before the 1881 census.

Pam
who's just realised that while she was s-l-o-w-l-y typing, helachau has stolen her thunder