Home Holdings and Collections Shipping Records Crew lists and logbooks

Crew Lists Index Search

A number of series of crew agreements and logbooks are held at the Maritime History Archive. Of these the most important is the British Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen series known as Agreements and Account of Crew for British Empire vessels.

A crew agreement provides particulars about a vessel, including the port of registry, tonnage, form of propulsion, owner(s) and intended voyage. It also provides information regarding each crew member including the person's name, year and place of birth, capacity, previous vessel served on, and date of signing on and off the vessel.

The agreements and logbooks for voyages terminating for the years 1863 - 1938 are indexed and can be searched here. The agreements for the years 1951 - 1976 have not been indexed. There are no nominal indexes to the crew lists. For us to search the agreements for a particular seafarer, we must know the name or official number of the vessel, and the approximate dates that person served on it. The 1951 - 1976 agreements can also be searched with this information. Once a person has been located, it is sometimes possible to trace his or her career back through previous vessels.

This program searches by official number only and returns the year(s) and type(s) of crew list documents that exist for that number. (Official numbers can be found in Mercantile Navy Lists or Lloyd's Registers, of which we have copies.)

For information on ordering copies of crew agreements please go to the Ordering Crew Agreements page.