These logs were books maintained by the Officer of the Watch for every ship of the Royal Navy in commission. They provide a permanent and consecutive daily record of the ships movements and position, recording all wheel and telegraph orders, weather encountered and other events, such as the employment of the ship's company, any deaths on board, disciplinary action (i.e. the reading of punishment warrants), loss or damage to stores and any other items of interest, such as visits by dignitaries of foreign officers. Logs were not kept by ships under major refit, which account for some gaps in sequence.
PLEASE NOTE: selections of digitised log books for key periods and shipping lanes are available on the external UK Colonial Registers and Royal Navy Logbooks (CORRAL) project dataset site.