This series contains the register of shipping kept by the General Registry and Record Office of Seamen which, until 1855, consists of transcripts of the original registries, with manuscript notes of any subsequent changes of ownership, known as 'transactions', on the reverse.
The records contain the following information:
- port registry number;
- name and home port;
- date and place of registration;
- names of masters;
- names, occupations and addresses of owners;
- place and date of construction or capture as prize;
- name and employment of surveying officer;
- nationality of building (British, Plantation or Foreign);
- number of decks and masts;
- depth of hold and tons burden;
- type of vessel;
- whether it had a gallery or figure head.
Early transcripts sent to London were destroyed in a fire at the Customs House in 1814. The series proper begins in that year but the Registration Books of the Port of London 1786-1814 have been included at the beginning of the series.
A selected record within this series (BT 107/496) is available to download as digital microfilm.
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