Records of British Seamen and Ships

This was originally posted on the MARHST-L Maritime History list in October 1997 by David Asprey (david.asprey@british-shipping.org).

As noted in my summary the surviving 19th Century original port registration books are in various locations (only the London ones for 1786-1814 are at the Public Record office in BT 107). Suggest you contact the Registry of Shipping & Seamen, Anchor House, Cheviot Close, Parc Ty Glas, Llanishen, Cardiff CF4 5JA [you need a big envelope for the address!] or fax +44 (0)1222 747877, for the location of particular ones - some are actually at RSS. I think that the more general question about Scottish registers might have to await the promised RSS listing.

But from 1815 (earlier ones were destroyed in a fire at the London Customs House in 1814) most of the "Transcripts and Transactions " are available at PRO. The Transcripts are effectively office copies of the Register Book containing the same information and the Transactions record subsequent changes, mostly in ownership. On the whole they are fairly easy to navigate around:
BT 107 Transcripts 1815-1854 (index, back to 1786, in BT 111)(Transactions are recorded on the same document)
BT 108 Transcripts 1854-1889 (index in BT 111)
BT 109 Transactions 1854-1889 (references endorsed on the records in BT 108)
BT 110 Transcripts & Transactions 1889-1955 - filed by decade of closure of British Registry (and separately for UK and "Colonial" ports). These later documents are sometimes the hardest to use as discovering the year of final closure can be more difficult than the year of initial registration, especially for smaller vessels not included in Lloyd's Register - the official Mercantile Navy List has no index of former names nor (for most of this period) numerical listing by Official Numbers.

RECORDS OF BRITISH SEAMEN AND SHIPS
Registry of Shipping and Seamen (RSS) has issued (dated June 1997) a revised information sheet on historical records of seamen. As it is not available on-line, here is a summary:

MERCHANT NAVY SEAMAN'S SEA SERVICE RECORDS

LOG BOOKS AND CREW AGREEMENTS (**)

(**) this may not be exactly correct - for example, I found some logs & crew agreements for Runcorn-registered ships from the 1880s in the Cheshire Record Office the other day - DA

LOG BOOKS CONTAINING ENTRIES OF BIRTHS AND DEATH AT SEA

BIRTHS, MARRIAGES & DEATHS AT SEA - MERCHANT SEAMEN AND PASSENGERS

Returns of Deaths at Sea

Casualties & Death Lists

REGISTERS OF CERTIFICATES OF COMPETENCY AND SERVICE

all at PRO in BT122-124, 126-127, 129-130, 138-139, 141-142

SHIPS REGISTERS ARCHIVES (notes by DA)

It will be some time, I feel, before the material destined for PRO is available but I will advise progress.
Other sources:

British mercantile records of the 19th and 20th centuries - a realistic guide. Len Barnett's site contains a wealth of information on the methods to use and records available to find your long lost mariner.

The Memorial University of Newfoundland holds approximately 70% of the British Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen series known as Agreements and Account of Crew for British Empire vessels.

Ancestry.com, an excellent genealogical site.

Last Updated: 20 January, 2002.