The website of this UK-based maritime and historical research service has links to some sources worth knowing in researching your UK seafaring ancestors.
Digitised crew lists available to search for free via a database featuring over a quarter of a million names. Contains all the surviving Merchant Navy crew lists from 1915. I was able to my information on a great-uncle by marriage.
Index to Lloyd's List Marine News 1740-1837
From copies of Lloyd's List deposited at the Guildhall Library, this database indexes the news items, ordinary shipping movements are not included.
Lloyd's List
A newspaper reporting shipping movements and casualties, maritime news and other commercial information. An incomplete run of issues from 1741 to 1846 digitized by Google and searchable
Lloyd’s Register
Reports on the condition of vessels surveyed by Lloyds. 18th & 19th Century volumes were scanned by Google and are searchable. Also included are volumes for 1930-1945 scanned by the staff of the Southampton Library & Archive.
Mercantile Navy List
Records all British registered vessels one-quarter of a ton and over, including coastal vessels, ferries and pleasure craft making it the most comprehensive listing of British vessels available. Coverage is incomplete from 1849 to 1938.
Books, Boxes and Boats will reward exploring the site with a variety of other resources. I was delighted to find deceased friend Chris Watts' TNA presentations Tracing Births and Deaths at Sea and Using Passenger Lists (every journey has two ends) available as podcasts.
What a find! So many databases to explore, free of charge. Thank you for leading us there.
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