Manuscripts collection
The National Maritime Museum's collection of manuscripts is the largest and most important dedicated archive for the study of maritime history in the world. The collection occupies over four linear miles of shelf space and covers all aspects of British seafaring history from the 14th to the 20th centuries.
It includes public records relating to the administration of the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy, shipping company records and personal papers comprising journals, diaries and letters. There are many famous people represented in the collection including letters from Vice-Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson (1758–1805) and the papers of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich and First Lord of the Admiralty (1718–92). The Collections are arranged into two basic divisions:
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Natural Collections – these are groups of papers brought together in the course of the transaction of daily affairs by an organisation or an individual - Artificial Collections – these were deliberately brought together by the interests of a collector, to whom they owe their unity
These two broad categories are then further subdivided into the following sections:
- Public records: records of the central administration of the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy.
- Public records: local records of the Royal Navy and of the Merchant Navy
- Records of semi-governmental and non-governmental organisations
- Personal collections
- Artificial collections previously assembled
- Manuscript volumes acquired singly by the Museum
- Manuscript documents acquired singly by the Museum
- Copies of manuscripts not held in the Museum collections
Sections 1–4 are all natural collections and sections 5–8 are artificial collections. The following pages contain further details on these sections.
- View highlights from the manuscripts collection (and the Caird Library collection) in our item of the month and previous items of the month.
About the collection
Section 1
Public records: records of the central administration of the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy
These records include:
- Admiralty records concerning the central administration of the Royal Navy from the late-17th to the 20th centuries. The papers relate to the Board of the Admiralty, responsible for the executive direction of the British Fleet, and the four sub-ordinate departments – the Navy, Victualling, Sick & Hurt and Transport Boards.
The papers include Lieutenants’ Logs that were kept by lieutenants of ships in commission and were, until 1809, necessary evidence of service that entitled the lieutenant to be paid. At the Navy Office, individual logs were bound into volumes according to the name of the ship. The NMM holds logs for 1673–1809. The name of the vessel and date for which information is required is needed to check availability. The series of captains' and masters' logs are held at The National Archives.
- Board of Trade collections, including documents from the Marine Department, including wreck registers for 1855–98.
These papers include Board of Trade Casualty Returns & Inquiry Reports (please note that these documents do not appear on the Manuscripts Online Catalogue). Casualty Returns began in 1850, initially covering wrecks around Britain and later extended to British ships lost anywhere in the world, and foreign vessels wrecked off UK coasts or British territories overseas. The returns give statistics of shipping casualties, fatalities and, up to 1921, details of individual ships lost. The Museum has copies of some reports pre-1908. The Guildhall Library has reports for 1908–65.
- Lloyd’s Register of Shipping Survey Reports & Plans (these documents do not appear on the Manuscripts online catalogue). The NMM holds survey reports and plans of vessels surveyed by Lloyd’s Register at British and foreign ports c.1834–1900, and survey and wreck reports and plans of vessels lost or declassified between c.1900 and c.1964. The name of the vessel, and the year and place of build are required in order to trace surviving survey reports and plans. Please note that Lloyd's Register reference library holds reports and plans for yachts.
- Register General of Shipping & Seamen papers, including: agreements, crew lists and official logs; apprentice indentures; and applications for examination and certificates of competency and service. For more information, visit the tracing people page of the enquiries menu (a link is provided on the right hand column). Note that these documents do not appear on the Manuscripts online catalogue.
Section 2
Public records: Local records of the Royal Navy and of the Merchant Navy
The records consist of documents relating to the Royal Dockyards, principally in the 17th and 18th centuries. In this period there were six yards in England – at Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, Portsmouth and Plymouth. There were also a number of outposts, for example Harwich and Pembroke, and overseas yards, including Gibraltar, Halifax and Jamaica. With the exception of Chatham Dockyard, the records do not extend later than the Napoleonic Wars (1800–15).
Section 3
Records of semi-governmental and non-governmental organisations
With the exception of the Marine Society, founded in 1756, and the papers of Michael Henley & Son, whose shipping business flourished during and after the Napoleonic Wars, the collections date from the late 19th and 20th centuries. The business records of shipping lines and shipbuilding companies vary from minutes of shareholders’ meetings to financial accounts, voyage records and logbooks. The major group of archives are those of P&O and its amalgamated companies. There are also a variety of small collections relating to support organisations, like the Royal Navy Loan Library, or archives of scholarly societies, for example the Navy Records Society, founded in 1893.
For preliminary business collection research, the Historical Manuscripts Commission’s website includes the National Register of Archives database which indicates which company records have been archived and in which repository they are held.
Section 4
Personal collections
These consist of more than 400 collections, primarily relating to Royal Naval officers from the rank of Admiral to Lieutenant. There is also material relating to Merchant Navy officers, those involved in exploration, politicians and administrators. Particular strengths are the naval papers of the late-18th and 19th centuries, including: Vice-Admiral Lord Cuthbert Collingwood (1750–1810); Admiral Lord Samuel Hood (1724–1816); Admiral Lord Augustus Keppel (1725–86); and Vice-Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson (1758–1805). There are also extensive collections of great men of the Victorian Navy, for example Admiral Robert Stewart Phipps Hornby (1866–1956), Sir Alexander Milne, Admiral of the Fleet (1806–96), and Sir Gerard Henry Uctred Noel, Admiral of the Fleet (1845–1918), and 20th century material relating to Lord David Beatty, Admiral of the Fleet (1871–1936) and Lord Alfred Ernle Montacute Chatfield, Admiral of the Fleet (1873–1967).
Section 5
Artificial collections previously assembled
The collections cover a broad range of maritime subjects and have been kept as they were presented by, or purchased from, the collector who brought them together. The collections include those of:
- Roger Charles Anderson (1883–1976), mainly relating to the Royal Navy in the 17th and 18th centuries but also including papers on merchant shipping and on the French, Dutch, Spanish, Swedish and Venetian navies
- Basil Lubbock (1876–1944), recording the history of sailing ships between 1850 and 1930
- Sir Thomas Phillips (1792–1872), incorporating the collections of Robert Cole, George Jackson and the Southwell family on naval administration and policy, John Wilson Croker’s collection of Nelson correspondence, and William Upcott’s collection of eminent naval characters.
Section 6
Manuscript volumes acquired singly by the Museum
The collections are catalogued by subject and/or type of volume, for example Royal Navy and Merchant Navy logbooks, journals, signal books and letterbooks.
Section 7
Manuscript documents acquired singly by the Museum
The collections are catalogued by subject and/or type of document, for example autograph letters, papers relating to the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy administration.
Section 8
Copies of manuscripts not held in the Museum collections
This includes copies of documents, tape recordings and other research material including microfilms, facsimiles and transcripts.
Resources
Publications
The collection is described in a two-volume publication, Guide to the Manuscripts in the National Maritime Museum, by RJB Knight (London: Mansell 1980) which is available in the Library. Readers should note that as this work is now somewhat dated, not all manuscript collections are included.
For a more up-to-date catalogue of collections use the Archive catalogue. This catalogue also contains biographical information in the collection entries, providing useful overviews of both the subject and content of the collections and documents.
Research guides
The Museum has published a series of research guides that can act as useful introductions to specific areas of maritime history. Guides of particular relevance to the Manuscripts collections are listed below:
Research guide A2: Principal records for maritime research at the National Maritime Museum
Research guide A3: Tracing family history from maritime records
Research guide B1: The Royal Navy: Tracing people
Research guide B3: The Royal Navy: Sources for enquiries
Research guide B5: Royal naval dockyards
Research guide B6: The Royal Navy: Administrative records
Research guide B7: The Royal Navy: Ship records
Research guide C1: The Merchant Navy: Tracing people: Crew lists, agreements and official logs
Research guide C2: The Merchant Navy: Tracing people: Master mariners, mates and engineers
Research guide C4: The Merchant Navy: Sources for enquiries
Research guide C5: The Merchant Navy: Sources for ship histories
Research guide C8: The Merchant Navy: Wrecks, losses and casualties
Research guide C13: The Merchant Navy: Tracing merchant seamen: Sources of information in the National Maritime Museum
Research guide E1: World War Two: Papers in the National Maritime Museum
Research guide F1: Shipping companies: Records held by the National Maritime Museum
Research guide G1: Passengers: Sources for enquiries
Research guide H1: Lloyds: Lloyds List: Brief history