Maritime History

Submitted by Guinevere

Sailors

The term sailor is commonly used to describe any man who went to sea, whether in the Royal Navy, Merchant Navy, Coastguards, Lifeboat Service, fishing fleet or as a pilot, privateer or a single boatman. If a man went to sea he was a sailor.

Mariners

The term mariner can be synonymous with sailor but is more likely to mean that the man was concerned with the navigation of the vessel. Master mariners were those skilled in navigation. A Master Mariner would probably have a Mate or Master's ticket and be on the Seaman's Register at the National Archives. Mariners would come under the umbrella heading of the Merchant Navy.

The main source for tracing details of merchant seamen and shipping, especially from the 18th century onwards, are the archives of the Registry of Shipping and Seamen (RSS). These records are held in a number of places. Some are with the RSS in Cardiff, some with the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich and National Archives of Scotland and Ireland. However, the majority are held in The National Archives in Kew. These records are broken down into categories and an explanation of how these can be viewed can be found on The National Archives.

Organised service records do not commence until 1835 when The Merchant Shipping Act of that year required masters of all ships to file Agreements and Crew Lists with the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen.

For those researching mariner ancestors who are experiencing difficulty locating them on the England and Wales census, Seamen on British Censuses contains a good explanation of the requirements regarding enumeration and may assist in helping you to locate those missing people!

The National Maritime Museum ~ Maritime Memorials is another good source of information for those researching this field.

Text from Family Tree Forum Online Magazine ~ Volume Two: April 2008.

General Links

• National Maritime Museum's Guide to Researching Family History from Maritime Records

• Researching the Mariners and Ships of the Merchant Marine and the World's Navies

• Tracing British Seamen & their ships

• UK Mariners Site - All Things Nautical

• John's Nautical and Boatbuilding Pages

• The Maritime History Virtual Archives

• Merchant Navy and Royal Navy Information

• Lloyds Register of Ships 1764-2003

• Index to Lloyds Captains' Register

• Vessels & Enumeration in Census Records

• Index of Ships' Captains Australia and New Zealand

• The Ocean Liner Virtual Museum

• The Titanic

• See also Emigration and Immigration for Shipping Lists and more Maritime Resources.

The Royal Navy

• The Royal Navy

The Merchant Navy

• Records of Merchant Seamen

• The Federation Of Merchant Mariners

• Through Mighty Seas, Merchant sailing ships of the North West of England

• British Merchant Ship Losses in World War I

• Merchant Navy Losses in World War 2

• The Crew List index project - Merchant seafarers on British registered ships between 1861 and 1913

• How to trace Merchant Navy personnel

• How to trace Merchant Mariners, mates and engineers who served in the Merchant Navy

• Irish Merchant Seamen 1918-1921

Coastguards and Coastal Defences

The Coastguard began as Customs Officers whose job was to apprehend smugglers trying to import goods without paying duty. As early as the 17th century there were small fleets of customs boats patrolling local waters in an effort to prevent smuggling.

A detailed history of HM Coastguard and Records can be found at the National Archives ~ Coastguard and in County Record Offices.

• HM Coastguard

• British Coastguards 1841 - 1901

• History of The Coastguard With Particular Reference to Wick and Newbiggin-by-the-Sea

• History of Walton on the Naze Coastguard 1851-1901

• A Brief History of The Tenby Coastguard Service

• History of The Isle of Barra Coastguard

• The Irish Coastguard Service From The 18th Century to The Early 20th Century

• The South Coast Martello Towers

• Landguard Fort, Felixtowe

• The Needles Battery

• Newhaven Fort

• WW2 Coastal Defences Salthouse, Kelling & Weybourne, North Norfolk

• The Nothe Fort, Weymouth

• The Palmerston Forts Society Forts in Portsmouth Area

• Shoreham Fort

• The Maunsell Sea Forts, Whitstable

The Fishing Industry

Deep sea fishing was the most dangerous occupation of the 19th Century and is still high on the list today. Men signed on at a fixed rate per voyage or for a share of the catch.

The fishing fleet was part of the Merchant Navy. Coastal County Record Offices sometimes house extensive collections of information about the fishing fleets based in their ports.

Details of these may be found in A2A - Access to Archives or, more likely, on individual County Record Office websites.

• Hull Trawler Losses of World War One

• The Brixham Sailing Trawlers Database

• History of Fishing at Burton Bradstock

• A Guide to Family History in Hull and Grimsby Fishing Archives (pdf file)

• The Fishing Industry in Hastings

• The Polperro Fishing Industry

• Irish Sea Herring Fisheries in the 18th and 19th Century

• A History of the Scottish Fishing Industry

• The Stonehaven Fishing Industry

• The History of Fraserburgh's Fishing Fleet

• Buckie and District Fishing Heritage

• Milford Haven Trawlers

Lifeboats

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is a charity and lifeboats are manned by volunteers.

The RNLI grew out of the loose groups of salvagers which could be found in most ports.

When vessels were in trouble at sea salvers, often sailors or fishermen, would go to the rescue and claim salvage rights of the vessel and its cargo.

Many local branches of the RNLI have records of volunteers and rescues but do make a charge for searches. Some records can also be found in County Record Offices and local newspaper archives are another useful source.

• Grace Darling Museum

• Shore Thing. Crew Member Archives of the RNLI

• A Site Dedicated to The Lifeboat Men of Whitby Who Lost Their Lives in 1861

Many other Lifeboat stations have their own history sites, often with old Crew Lists and Photographs - these include:-

• Aberystwyth

• Burnham-on-Crouch

• Burnham-on-Sea

• Dover

• Falmouth

• Gravesend

• Lyme Regis

• Mumbles

• Portpatrick

• Ramsgate

• Sheerness

• Shoreham

• St Peter Port

• Swanage

• Thurso

• Walton and Frinton

• Wells-next-the-Sea

• Whitstable

Trinity Pilots and Lighthouses

All ports need sea pilots to guide vessels safely through local hazards and into harbour. Historically these used to be local men who knew the seas around their home ports. Pilots were also needed on large navigable rivers. Samuel Pepys had concerns about the quality of Port of London Pilots and was given permission to devise a test and the Pilots were brought under the aegis of Trinity House.

Trinity Pilots were licensed by the Corporation of Trinity House. When a Pilot applied to be licensed, he had to have British nationality, have several years' experience as a watch-keeping officer of a ship, hold a foreign-going Master Mariner's certificate (or Naval Certificate of Service) and be under 35 years of age.

Records are held at The Guildhall Library, although these suffered from fire in 1666 and 1714 and from bombing in 1940. Some court minutes survive from 1660, but the majority of other records in the series are only present from the 19th century. Staff employed at the Guildhall Library are unable to undertake personal searches. The functions of Trinity House, as well as surviving records and how to access them is explained on the website at Guildhall Library Manuscipts Section - Trinity House Family History Sources.

Qualified pilots could claim a set fee so unofficial local pilots continued to thrive up until the 20th Century. In Lowestoft, for example, these men were know as Brumigen Pilots. Registers of Pilots can usually be found in County Record Offices.

• Bristol Channel Pilots

• Liverpool Pilots

• Thames Pilot

• Lighthouse Personnel in England, Wales and The Channel Islands c. 1790-1911

• Trinity House's Gallery of Lighthouses

• Map of UK Lighthouses in 1900, Scotland, Northern England and North of Ireland

• Map of UK Lighthouses in 1900, Southern England, The Channel Islands and South of Ireland

• History of Scottish Lighthouses

• Bellrock Lighthouse (off the Angus Coast)

• History of the Older Higher Lighthouse, Portland Bill

• A Brief History of Happisburgh Lighthouse

Shipbuilding

• The Shipbuiliding Industry of North East England 1790-1899

• Berwick on Tweed Shipyard

• Clydeside Shipbuilding History

• The Whitehaven Shipbuilding Industry

• Chatham Dockyard

• Titanic in Belfast~Harland & Wolff

• Harland and Wolff Apprentices

Shipping Companies

• The White Star, Shaw Savill and Albion Lines

• The Caledonian Macbrayne Fleet

• The Union Castle Line - Staff Register

• The Dundee Perth and London Shipping Company

• History of the P & O Shipping Company

• Manchester Liners Old Shipmates Association

• The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company

Shipwrecks

• Great British Shipwrecks

• Dorset and Portland Shipwrecks

• Chesil Beach Shipwrecks

• Shipwrecks off The Needles, Isle of Wight

• Isle of Man Shipwrecks

• Shipwrecks of Cork Harbour

• Early Australian Shipwrecks

Smuggling

• A History of British Smuggling

• A History of Smuggling in East Dorset

• The History of Smuggling in Polperro

• Smuggling in and around Burton Bradstock

Ports and Harbours

• Maritime London

• Piers of England

• Port Cities uk, Bristol, Hartlepool, Liverpool, London & Southampton

• Brixham Heritage Sailing Trawlers Archive

• Tales of the Maritime Heritage of Cornwall

• Royal Dockyard Devonport

• Granton and Leith Trawlers

• Jersey Seaman's Benefit Society

• The History of Maritime Liverpool

• Merseyside Maritime Museum

• Merseyside Shipping Snippets

• History of Portsmouth Dockyard

• South West Maritime History Society

• The Thames Sailing Barge Trust

• Cardiff Mariners

• The Maritime History of Holyhead

• Maritime Llyn and the Sea.The Men, Ships and Ports of Llyn, Wales

• Swansea Mariners

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