Catalogue description Registry of Shipping and Seamen: Annual Lists of Ships Registered

Sections 94 and 278 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1854 and section 63 (1) of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 require every Registrar of British ships at a port in the United Kingdom to transmit to the Custom House in London (subsequently to the Registrar General of Seamen) a list of all ships registered at that port, and also of all ships whose registers have been transferred or cancelled at that port since the last preceding return. The Annual Lists also contain details of alterations in tonnages of ships appearing in the Register and contain an abstract showing particulars of numbers and tonnages of ships remaining on the Register.

Registrars of British ships at ports in the Plantations, later described as British Overseas Dominions and Protectorates, also submit Annual Lists of all ships on their Registers. These lists are non-statutory.

The Quinquennial Lists, also non-statutory, contain lists of all ships appearing on the Registers of ports in the United Kingdom at the end of every fifth year. They show the names of the ships and details of the tonnages and also contain an abstract of particulars of the numbers and tonnages of all vessels on the Registers. No Quinquennial Lists were prepared during the 1914-1918 or 1939-1945 Wars.