Merchant Navy Research Guides
This guide explains where to find resources at the National Maritime Museum (NMM) Caird Library to research the crews and vessels of the Merchant Navy.
Research guide C1: The Merchant Navy: Tracing people: Crew lists, agreements and official logs
This guide gives details of crew agreements for British-registered merchant ships, crew lists or muster-rolls and official ships' logs.
Research guide C2: The Merchant Navy: Tracing people: Master mariners, mates and engineers
This research guide outlines the system of certification from 1845 onwards, and explains how and where to find certificates and other records that will help you trace masters, mates and engineers.
Research guide C4: The Merchant Navy: Sources for enquiries
This guide lists places which, like the National Maritime Museum, have records and information that will help you research various aspects of mercantile history.
Research guide C5: The Merchant Navy: Sources for ship histories
There are many different aspects to merchant navy history and considerable information survives about British merchant ships, which you can explore.
Research guide C6: The Merchant Navy: The Mercantile Navy List
This guide gives a brief introduction to the Board of Trade's official list of all British registered ships.
Research guide C8: The Merchant Navy: Wrecks, losses and casualties
This guide outlines some ways in which you can trace information about merchant shipping wrecks, losses and casualties.
Research guide C9: The Merchant Navy: World War One
This guide outlines the main sources for researching the activities of merchant ships and their crews during the First World War.
Research guide C10: The Merchant Navy: World War Two
This guide outlines the main sources for researching the activities of merchant ships and their crews during the Second World War, 1939 to 1945.
Research guide C11: The Merchant Navy: Handy Shipping Guide
This guide provides a brief introduction to the Handy Shipping Guide, published between 1887 and 1988.
Research guide C12: The Merchant Navy: Ship registration and Custom House records
This guide outlines the history of ship registration in Britain, from the mid 17th century until 1857, when the official Mercantile Navy List was first published.
Research guide C13: Tracing Merchant Seamen
This guide is meant to be used in conjunction with Research Guides C1 and C2 and gives further details of records in the National Maritime Museum relating to merchant seamen.
For further information, please contact the library team at library@rmg.co.uk