Rob

I have done a lot of maritime research for my ancestors and if your ancestor was a "ships captain" he would probably have been registered by the Board of Trade in UK and listed by Lloyds in London on their captains register. To captain a "British Ship" he would have to hold a Masters Certificate or Lloyds would not have insured the ship.

I believe the National Library in Canberra has microfilmed copies of the Captains register. The originals sit in Guildhall Library London, and the benefit is that they are in alphabetical order with 7 years of records in each book. So it is easy to find someone.

So if he was registered by Lloyds, you will find him there, get his Master's Certificate number and a list of ships he sailed on after getting his certificate, then can get more details of his ships and their voyages from Lloyds lists. (copies on microfilm in Canberra) That will then give his dates of sailing to australia.

I found my Great Grandfather the other way round - I knew the name of his last ship and Nick Vine Hall found a record that named him as captain in Lloyds Shipping Register. From there it was easy to get his masters certificate and sailing history.

State Library in Melbourne has a printed list of masters in book form from I think 1856, which could be all you need to consult, although he would have to have still been on the list in 1856. My great great grandfather was in it with the captains register details.

Likely in 1850 Peter Mullin may have been lured by the gold rush and left his ship. If he was a seaman or a lesser officer rather than captain - he is still traceable but it is much harder. If you could find his ship and its official number, 70% of the crew lists are held in Canada for all british ships. They took the old Board of Trade archives into the university of Newfoundland Maritime History Archive - or MHA. They have not indexed the collection for names (yet).

Greewich National Maritime Museum in London holds some of the old Seamens pouches that held individual seamens details - but these are very hard to trace individuals through. PRO in Kew London also holds records of apprentices (boys put onto ships at 14 or 15 with a view to becoming officers)

The public record office in Victoria http://www.prov.vic.gov.au/ also holds searchable immigrant lists with ships which includes the captains names as well. But it starts in 1852, so may have just missed him. I ran a search on it for up to 1855 - but no Peter Mullin - nor was he in their earlier assisted immigrant list. He may have been crew and went gold digging on arrival in Melbourne.

Good luck with your search if you are still looking

regards
Ken Mival