Catalogue description Board of Trade and Ministry of Transport and Successor Bodies: Consultative Marine (M, CB, and CM Series) Files

The comprehensive control of ships for which the Ministry of Transport is now responsible, dates from the setting up of the Mercantile Marine Department in the Board of Trade after the passing of the Mercantile Marine Act of 1850. In 1851 the Steam Navigation Act authorised the establishment of the Marine Survey Service, while the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854 introduced new and more stringent features into the Survey of passenger steamships. Except for a short period during the 1914-1918 war, this Marine Survey Service continued to be a part of the Mercantile Marine Department of the Board of Trade until 1940 when first the Ministry of Shipping, later the Ministry of War Transport and finally the Ministry of Transport exercised responsibility for it.

With the industry fast developing as a result of the technical progress of the steam engine and the tendency of vessels to become larger owing to the substitution of iron for wood in their construction, it became necessary to impose higher standards of sea-worthiness and to require more frequent and closer inspections. To meet these needs the Marine Department in 1876 introduced a series of examinations for the appointment of additional surveyors to be based at the principal ports in the United Kingdom to conduct the actual survey of ships. Simultaneously a Consultative Marine Branch comprising specialists in particular fields of ship survey work was created in the Mercantile Marine Department of the Board of Trade.

The Surveyors are now divided into three grades, Engineer, Ship and Nautical. They are primarily concerned with the operation of the "Principal" Act (Merchant Shipping Act, 1894) and its various subsequent amending Acts in so far as these Acts relate to the safety of ships at sea, involving hull construction, machinery and equipment.