![]() One of the great drawbacks in maritime research today is the fact that no institution holds a complete set of American ship registers for the nineteenth century. Luckily, some individuals retained copies year after year, but most did not. Once the registers were out of date, they were usually discarded. They were not meant to be historical documents but, rather, annual records of the vessels that were in existence at that point in time. Unfortunately, many of the registers are rare due to the original use for which they were created. Knowing how to use the registers to get to the information contained in the manuscript collections is an essential part of maritime research. The information in the registers, in fact, helps to “link” a vessel to other primary sources such as marine insurance records, logbooks, and business papers. Once this information is known, the researcher can begin exploring primary and secondary sources associated with the vessel in question. Published ship registers are always a critical piece in establishing the identity of the vessel being researched. Once a person determines the identity of the vessel that brought their ancestors to this country, we can tell him something about it. As people delve into their past, they not only want to know from where their ancestors came, but how they eventually reached their destination. Prior to the mid-twentieth century, the only way that emigrants from most countries could make their way to America was by ship. While no book or article is based solely on the registers of ships, the registers hold critical information that simply cannot be found elsewhere, and which in turn unlocks other sources, such as logbooks, manuscripts, ships’ plans, maps and charts, and photographs and paintings.Īside from their usefulness in scholarly and artistic endeavors, ship registers are currently in great demand because of the growing interest that the general public is showing in the research of personal family history. As a consequence, most books and articles written on maritime subjects (nautical archaeology, shipbuilding, marine commerce, etc.) cite ship registers, such as Lloyd’s Register of Ships or the Record of the American Bureau of Shipping, to verify the facts about the ships involved. Blunt White Library and other maritime research libraries involves ship genealogy: verification of a ship’s identity and some salient facts about it. Their builders, many of them anonymous, have died or gone out of business, and their models and plans, if any existed, have disappeared as well. Of the literally tens of thousands of American vessels which once plied our waterways, only a tiny number have survived, most having been broken up or otherwise lost to history when they reached the end of their useful life. ![]() In many cases, these registers represent the only record of a particular vessel’s existence. Produced for shipping companies and insurance firms, merchant ship registers document vessels’ names, size, captains’ and owners’ names, home ports, type, date and place of construction, materials used in building, and other vital information needed in studying their history. Of these, the ship registers are the most heavily utilized by our staff and the public. Given the merchant marine’s important role, it is not surprising that the majority of the Museum’s research requests relate to merchant vessels in some way, and involve the use of such specialized materials as ship registers, ships’ plans, and archival collections. Coriolis, Interdisciplinary Journal of Maritime Studies.19th Century American Merchant Marine Digital Library. ![]()
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