Shipping Control and Operation: Correspondence and Papers

MT 59

1919-1998

This series consists of papers of the Ministry of Shipping, the Ministry of War Transport and the post-war transport ministries. The wartime files are mostly concerned with the centralised direction of shipping during the emergency conditions of the Second World War, and with the programming of civil and military requirements in the Middle East through the Middle East Supply Centre.

Files also relate to the administration of the Suez Canal following its nationalisation in 1956; international shipping policy, especially flag discrimination; the impact of international conventions, agreements and treaties on shipping policy; the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organisation; the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

There are also records of the United Maritime Authority, and records of the various Committees of the United Maritime Executive Board on which the Ministry was represented in this series.

Papers relating to post-war problems, including (in the FSR/PW series) the records of the European Central Inland Transport Organisation can also be found in this series.

Some files in the FSR/T series which deal with the Goeland Company, originated in the Ministry of Economic Warfare (FO 837), but were transferred to the Ministry of War Transport in 1944.

Files also included (in the SHIP series) relate to international shipping policy and international relations. In addition, the SHIP series includes papers on the British Soviet Maritime Commission, which was previously within the FSR series.

For files on the Middle East Centre see: FO 922

For papers of the Ministry of War Transport: BT 193

Public Record(s)

English

• Board of Trade, Shipping Operation Control, 1965-1970
• Department for Transport, 2002-2002
• Department of Trade and Industry, Shipping Operation Control, 1970-1974
• Department of Trade, Shipping Operation Control, 1974-1984
• Department of Transport, 1976-1997
• Ministry of Transport, 1919-1941
• Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, Shipping Operation Control, 1953-1959
• Ministry of Transport, Shipping Operation Control, 1946-1953
• Ministry of Transport, Shipping Operation Control, 1959-1965
• Ministry of War Transport, Shipping Operation Control, 1941-1946

3892 file(s)

Open unless otherwise stated

From 1971 Ministry of Transport

Topics

Shipping

Canals and river transport

Trade and commerce

Transport management

Treaties and alliances

Conflict

Aid and development

Middle East

Operations, battles and campaigns

Series is accruing

The Shipping Operation Control division was responsible for the requisitioning, chartering and allocation of British merchant shipping; the reconciliation of import demands with shipping capacity; the acquisition and chartering of Allied and neutral vessels and the associated Shipping Agreements between British and foreign Governments.

The division was also responsible for co-ordination with the United States War Shipping Administration through the Ministry's British Merchant Shipping Mission in Washington and the Combined Shipping Adjustment Boards set up in London and Washington for the purpose of securing the most effective and economical use of the United Nations' shipping resources.

Co-operation with Allied and other Government developed further towards the end of the war with the establishment of the United Maritime Authority, and records of the various Committees of the United Maritime Executive Board on which the Ministry was represented will be found in this series.