Researching ships and seafarers

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Researching ships and seafarers

The Archive holds significant records relating to shipping and seafarers.

Major record series include Crew Lists and Logbooks, Vessel Registers, and Shipping Lists. Other series include information on captains, voyages, and shipwrecks. For more information on researching crew lists and logbooks held at the Maritime History Archive, please click here.

Published lists of vessels include Lloyd's Register of Shipping, from 1763 to date; the Mercantile Navy List, [1857-1973]; Record of American and Foreign Shipping, [1871-1988]; Merchant Vessels of the United States, [1867-1978]; Bureau Veritas Register of Ships: Registre Veritas, [1829-1985].

Access to the information contained in the records varies with each series. Information on how the records can be searched is given under the description of the record series.