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Series

Registry of Shipping and Seamen: Ships' Official Logs

Catalogue reference: BT 165

What's it about?

BT 165

This series contains ships' official logs kept by the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen and its predecessor.The logs are primarily concerned with matters of discipline, and were normally attached to the Articles of Agreement for the voyage...

Full description and record details

Reference

BT 165

Title
Registry of Shipping and Seamen: Ships' Official Logs
Date

1857-1972

Description

This series contains ships' official logs kept by the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen and its predecessor.

The logs are primarily concerned with matters of discipline, and were normally attached to the Articles of Agreement for the voyage to which they relate. The official logs in this series have been detached from the Articles of Agreement for the voyage concerned by the Registry of Shipping and Seamen.

The ships' logs for the years 1902-1912 contain entries of births, marriages or deaths; all surviving logs for the period 1914-1919 have been preserved and form the latter part of the series.

Note

Catalogue entries for this series have been enhanced as part of a project supported by volunteers from the London Family History Library, completed in March 2017.

Held by
The National Archives, Kew
Legal status

Public Record(s)

Language

English

Creator(s)
  • General Register and Record Office of Seamen, 1835-1872
  • Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen, 1872-1992
Physical description

2046 bundles and volumes

Access conditions

Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated

Subjects
Topics
Population
Navy
Merchant seaman
Selection and destruction information

The ships' logs for the years 1902-1912 were selected because they contain entries of births, marriages or deaths.

Administrative / biographical background

The 1850 Act specified that official log books (OLBs) were to be in a form to be prescribed by the Board of Trade (s 85).

Foreign trade OLBs were to be delivered to Port Shipping Masters or Customs on return (s 89), and home trade OLBs half-yearly (s. 90), as with crew agreements. They were however returnable to shipowners on request (s 92).

Record URL
https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C3203/

Catalogue hierarchy

Over 27 million records

This record is held at The National Archives, Kew

2,674,133 records

Within the department: BT

Records of the Board of Trade and of successor and related bodies

You are currently looking at the series: BT 165

Registry of Shipping and Seamen: Ships' Official Logs

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