British ships were registered at one of hundreds of ports of registry around Britain and what were then British colonies.
This page is an index of ships by their port of registry using data from the contemporary official sources such as the Mercantile Navy List (MNL) and the Appropriation Books.
For each port, it shows first a count of the entries by year. For a year selected from that list, it shows ship names and official numbers, sorted first by name, then by official number, with other details such as date of registration, and rig. For each record, links are provided to images of the source documents and to other data items such as holdings of crew lists.
For a full explanation of the records of British shipping, please see our information page, here:
Records of British ships
As described above, first select the port, then the year from the table of counts of ships.
For some ports, where there were other ports nearby, ships may have been registered at one of those ports. Where this is a possibility, the form provides facilities to switch to one of the other ports, or to see data for all the ports together.
The results show the names of ships registered at the port according to the records for that year. For record sets after 1855, the ship's official number is shown. The results show any other details from the source, and the exact reference for the source so that you can see where our information came from. The icon links to images of the source.
For the pre-1857 data drawn from BT 111 and BT 162, there is a link on the right hand side Data post 1855 which will search the CLIP data for later years by name and port, looking for possible matches in the period 1855 to 1870. Beware! Because there were no official numbers for this period, these are only tentative suggestions, not exact matches. Some common names could result in many possibilities!
For post-1857 data, which has official numbers, there are also links to show holdings of crew lists for that ship, using the Maritime History Archive index and our own CLIP index.
The 'More...' link will show all the information that we have for that official number.
The records are initially sorted by the ship's name. For the pre-1857 records, the records can be sorted by year and number of registration; for the post-1857 data, they can be sorted by official number. To change the sort, click the small icon next to the column heading.
For data from BT 111 and 1850 (BT 162), there is a final column, Port no/PR no, shows port number and port rotation number combinations for that ship, which we have recorded or have interpolated from crew list records for the period 1845 to 1854 in BT 98 at TNA. These numbers were used in the records of seafarers such as BT 113 and BT 124.
For more details of port numbers, see
Port numbers
. For more details of port rotation numbers, see
Port rotation numbers
The entries are colour coded. nn/nnn indicates data drawn from BT 98. nn/nnn indicates data interpolated from BT 98 data. Blank entries indicate where we have no data and are not able to interpolate data reliably, for example registrations pre-1845. Many early (and some post-1853) registrations may never have been allocated a port rotation number.
The link next to the data goes to the main port rotation numbers page for that registration.
Our thanks to James Canney for suggesting adding the port rotation number data.
The sources of the data are:
Please see our general information page
CLIP data
for details on sources, methodology, the abbreviations we have used, and our acknowledgements.
Be aware! CLIP data is transcribed 'as seen' - we have not tried to interpret or correct it (but see note about BT 111 in the Data sources section). Where we have doubts about an item, or have edited it, we mark it with a ? .
Beware! the links on the right hand side search CLIP data for later years but there were no official numbers pre-1855, so these are only tentative suggestions, not definitive links.
Ship
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Registry
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Registry closure | Source | Links | Port no/PR no |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
AGNES | 2/1838, 39 tons | BT 111/29-1, p 16, row 13 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/15 ![]() | |
AGNES KELLY | 2/1846, 73 tons | BT 111/29-1, p 17, row 69 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/54 ![]() | |
ALBION | 2/1853 previously London 116/1852 | BT 111/29-1, p 31, row 53 | More... Data post 1855 | ||
2/1853, 34 tons | Registry transferred to Campbeltown 9/1854 | BT 111/29-1, p 32, row 27 | Data post 1855 | ||
ALEXANDER | 1/1837, 25 tons | BT 111/29-1, p 23, row 15 | More... Data post 1855 | ||
ALEXANDER WISE | 1/1839, 299 tons | Registry transferred to Glasgow 6/1854 | BT 111/29-1, p 23, row 16 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/17 ![]() |
ALMA | 1/1855, 94 tons | BT 111/29-1, p 34, row 18 | More... Data post 1855 | ||
AMITY | 6/1839, 93 tons | Registry transferred to Dublin 13/1845 | BT 111/29-1, p 37, row 6 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/20 ![]() |
ANN | 14/1836, 72 tons | Registry transferred to Liverpool 57/1851 | BT 111/29-1, p 43, row 19 | More... Data post 1855 | |
3/1840, 43 tons | Registry transferred to Belfast 15/1847 | BT 111/29-1, p 43, row 20 | Data post 1855 | ||
ANN COOK | 3/1848, 113 tons | Registry transferred to Irvine 13/1852 | BT 111/29-2, p 7, row 57 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/73 ![]() |
ARRAN MAID | 2/1855 previously Irvine 10/1853 | BT 111/29-2, p 23, row 64 | More... Data post 1855 | ||
2/1855, 40 tons | BT 111/29-2, p 24, row 52 | ||||
AYRSHIRE LASS | 2/1849 ? , 69 tons | BT 111/29-2, p 37, row 15 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/80 ![]() | |
BETHEA | 1/1844, 119 tons | Registry transferred to Belfast 45/1851 | BT 111/29-2, p 44, row 9 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/41 ![]() |
BOOMERANG | 2/1852, 99 tons | Sold abroad | BT 111/29-3, p 18, row 35 | More... Data post 1855 | |
BRUCE | 1/1848, 50 tons | BT 111/29-3, p 27, row 76 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/71 ![]() | |
CATHERINE | 6/1846, 78 tons | BT 111/29-3, p 42, row 31 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/58 ![]() | |
CECILIA | 1/1851, 99 tons | Registry transferred to Whitehaven 12/1854 | BT 111/29-4, p 11, row 38 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/93 ![]() |
COILA | 4/1845, 108 tons | BT 111/29-4, p 37, row 9 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/51 ![]() | |
6/1852 | BT 111/29-4, p 40, row 79 | ||||
COLLINGWOOD | 3/1839, 283 tons | Lost | BT 111/29-4, p 33, row 15 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/18 ![]() |
3/1839, 283 tons | Re-registered at Ayr 3/1853 | BT 111/29-4, p 33, row 15 | 5/18 ![]() | ||
3/1853 previously Ayr 3/1839 | BT 111/29-4, p 33, row 15 | ||||
COMMERCE | 4/1840, 124 tons | BT 111/29-4, p 33, row 16 | More... Data post 1855 | ||
7/1846, 124 tons | BT 111/29-4, p 37, row 10 | 5/59 ![]() | |||
CULZEAN CASTLE | 2/1844 | BT 111/29-5, p 12, row 1 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/42 ![]() | |
2 ? /1845, 243 tons | Registry transferred to Belfast 95/1846 | BT 111/29-5, p 12, row 32 | Data post 1855 | 5/49 ![]() | |
DUNASKIN | 3/1854, 122 tons | BT 111/18-4, p 92, row 3 | More... Data post 1855 | ||
3/1854, 122 tons | BT 111/18-4, p 95, row 8 | ||||
DUNBAR PACKET | 2/1842, 26 tons | BT 111/29-5, p 42, row 5 | More... Data post 1855 | ||
EARL GREY | 4/1849, 22 tons | BT 111/19-1, p 10, row 9 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/82 ![]() | |
EARL OF CARRICK | 7/1855, 145 tons | BT 111/19-1, p 7, row 8 | More... Data post 1855 | ||
EGLINTOUN | 5/1839, 72 tons | Re-registered at Ayr 10/1853 | BT 111/30-1, p 7, row 2 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/19 ![]() |
5/1839, 72 tons | Re-registered at Ayr 12/1853 | BT 111/30-1, p 7, row 2 | 5/19 ![]() | ||
10/1853 previously Ayr 5/1839 | BT 111/30-1, p 7, row 2 | ||||
12/1853 previously Ayr 5/1839 | BT 111/30-1, p 7, row 2 | ||||
ELIZA | 2/1837, 307 tons | BT 111/30-1, p 8, row 22 | More... Data post 1855 | ||
5/1846, 129 tons | BT 111/30-1, p 14, row 71 | 5/57 ![]() | |||
ELIZABETH | 6/1841, 52 tons | BT 111/30-1, p 8, row 24 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/30 ![]() | |
4/1846, 25 tons | BT 111/30-1, p 14, row 70 | 5/56 ![]() | |||
ELIZABETH & MARY | 3/1841, 53 tons | BT 111/30-1, p 8, row 23 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/28 ![]() | |
ELIZABETH MCCLURE | 5/1848, 74 tons | BT 111/30-1, p 20, row 29 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/75 ![]() | |
ENTERPRISE | 9/1853 previously Port Glasgow 1/1851 | BT 111/30-1, p 41, row 77 | More... Data post 1855 | ||
9/1853, 18 tons | BT 111/30-1, p 42, row 55 | ||||
EUPHEMIA | 6/1853, 173 tons | BT 111/30-1, p 53, row 2 | More... Data post 1855 | ||
F M C | 1/1845, 73 tons | Registry transferred to Liverpool 41/1852 | BT 111/30-2, p 14, row 1 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/48 ![]() |
FAIRLIE & JANE | 11/1853, 56 tons | BT 111/30-2, p 36, row 44 | More... Data post 1855 | ||
11/1853, 56 tons | BT 111/30-2, p 36, row 50 | ||||
FAIRY | 6/1847, 54 tons | BT 111/30-2, p 32, row 56 | More... Data post 1855 | 5/67 ![]() |