Crew list forms
Crew lists and agreements
This page details the various forms that were used in recording the crews and other records of British registered ships.
In the 1970s, the Maritime History Archive (MHA) took in 70% of the crew documents for British registered ships for the period 1863 to 1939. They set about cataloguing the huge collection and made a list of the various species of crew documents which they encountered.
There would be little point in reproducing their list here. This is their page detailing the documents
MHA list of crew documents
MHA also has some magnificent pages describing how crew documents work, written by the people who know them best.
More than a list of crew
Additional forms
As well as the crew documents themselves, the British maritime bureaucratic machine was powered by forms for every occasion.
This is TNA's list of forms used by the Central Records Section (probably around the time of WW2)
TNA list of forms
The list below shows other forms which we have come across in collections of crew lists for the period up to 1913. There are undoubtedly many others.
| AA | Clearance outwards for foreign-going ships. | |
| BB | Clearance inwards for foreign-going ships. | |
| C 12 | Account of wages and effects of a seaman discharged or left behind | |
| C 47 | Receipt for payments made to a port officer. | |
| CC 6 | Account of wages and effects of a seaman left behind. | |
| Consul's certificate | Consuls certificate in respect of the documents for a foreign-going ship | |
| Dis 2 | Covering slip for documents and wages of a deceased seafarer. | |
| Dis 3 | Seafarer's application for transmission of wages and receipt for railway and cartage ticket warrants. | |
| Dis 3b | Transmission of seaman's wages | |
| Dis I | Seafarer's certificate of discharge. | |
| E 1 | Seafarer's certificates of character and discharge. | |
| Eng 16 | Receipt for payment of fees. | |
| Form F | Account of wages. | |
| GR 105 | Proforma letter to port officials. | |
| GR 171 | Proforma letter to port officials. | |
| GR 1a | Proforma letter to port officials. | |
| GR 1b | Proforma letter to port officials. | |
| GR 53 | Proforma letter to port officials. | |
| GR 61 | Proforma letter to the owners of a ship. | |
| GR 62 | Report of ship lost. | |
| M | Release on termination of service. | |
| Note of protest | Document formally placing information before the British consul. | |
| Surveys 104 | Deck cargo tonnage. | |
| Surveys 104b | Deck cargo declaration. |
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