Ships pre-1855 named CYGNET

This page is an index of ships by name drawn from the primary records of British shipping prior to 1855.

All British ships were registered at one of the hundreds of ports of registry around Britain and the then British Colonies. The documents relating to them, including the crew lists and agreements are now at The National Archives (TNA).

The index shows the ships' names and ports of registry, with links to other data such as the crew list holdings and with clear references to the sources of our data.

For a full explanation of the records of British shipping, please see our information page: Records of British ships

How to search for ships pre-1855 by name

On the search form, enter at least three letters of the ship's name and select whether you wish to make an Exact match search, or a fuzzy search based on whether the name Starts with this, Includes this or Ends with this. The form will not accept wild-card searches using '*', '%', '?' and suchlike.

For Exact searches only, if you know the ship's port of registry you can choose that from the list. Otherwise, just leave this blank.

Then click

Reading the results

For exact searches, the results show the ships' ports of registry.

For the fuzzy searches, the results show an alphabetic list of possible ship names, from which you can select one to go to an exact search result.

The results show a list of registry details, together with other details such as tonnage. Some data sources show the official number which was allocated from 1855 onwards and which we include as a convenient link to data for the ship post-1855.

Any available details of the register closure are shown.

The source of our information is shown. In some cases, the icons link to images of the Appropriation Books which show data for ships registered pre-1855. You can check our data for yourself.

On the right-hand side of the page, there are further links.

provides details of the crew list holdings at TNA for ships of that name and port (with further links to the FamilySearch films online). Be aware The TNA catalogue shows only the range of names held in each box. There is no guarantee that there will be records for a particular ship.

links to the CLIP advanced search pages which will show any data we have for ships post-1855 of that name and port. Be aware Because that search is by name and port, these are only tentative suggestions - the ship may have ceased to exist, or her port of registry may have changed.

The 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.

Data sources

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  ? .

Page 1 of 2.    Records 1 to 50 of 58. Select page: Next | 1 | 2 | Last
Port of registry Details Closure Official number Source Crew lists Links Port no/PR no
Aberdeen15/1847, 168 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 23TNA BT 98 Data post 18551/511 Lookup PR noPR
15/1847, 168 tons   TNA, BT 162/19-08, folio 322, 18501/511 Lookup PR noPR
Bridgwater19/1836, 44 tons  Re-registered at Bridgwater 3/1853 TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 4TNA BT 98 Data post 185515/13 Lookup PR noPR
3/1853, previously Bridgwater 19/1836  TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 4 
3/1853, Sail, 44 tons   10882 View details for this ONRSS, Appropriation Books  
Cardigan10/1836, 62 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 5TNA BT 98 Data post 1855 
1/1848, 62 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 5521/328 Lookup PR noPR
1/1848, 62 tons   TNA, BT 162/19-02, folio 46, 185021/328 Lookup PR noPR
1/1848, Sail, 62 tons   16128 View details for this ONRSS, Appropriation Books 21/328 Lookup PR noPR
Exeter3/1838, 19 tons  Re-registered at Exeter 10/1853 TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 10TNA BT 98 Data post 1855 
3/1838, 19 tons   TNA, BT 162/19-02, folio 73, 1850 
10/1853, previously Exeter 3/1838  TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 10 
10/1853, Sail, 18 tons   11043 View details for this ONRSS, Appropriation Books  
Glasgow29/1842, 97 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 11TNA BT 98 Data post 185544/385 Lookup PR noPR
53/1845, 97 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 2644/692 Lookup PR noPR
60/1847, 177 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 2744/910 Lookup PR noPR
60/1847, 177 tons   TNA, BT 162/19-09, folio 352, 185044/910 Lookup PR noPR
70/1847, 97 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 5944/920 Lookup PR noPR
70/1847, 97 tons   TNA, BT 162/19-09, folio 352, 185044/920 Lookup PR noPR
34/1848, 68 tons   TNA, BT 162/19-09, folio 353, 185044/981 Lookup PR noPR
64/1851, 68 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 6044/1274 Lookup PR noPR
Irvine18/1852, 177 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 74TNA BT 98 Data post 1855 
Liverpool, NS22/1847, 83 tons   TNA, BT 162/20-3, folio 144, 1850TNA BT 98 Data post 1855 
London186/1831, 239 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 17TNA BT 98 Data post 1855 
146/1833, 40 tons   TNA, BT 111/5-1, image 31 
314/1843, 6 tons   TNA, BT 111/5-2, image 664/2948 Lookup PR noPR
314/1843, 6 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 2064/2948 Lookup PR noPR
61/1847, 127 tons   TNA, BT 111/6-1, image 2864/4436 Lookup PR noPR
61/1847, 127 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 2164/4436 Lookup PR noPR
148/1848, 238 tons   TNA, BT 111/6-1, image 3064/4982 Lookup PR noPR
148/1848, 238 tons  Re-registered at London 412/1854 TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 6364/4982 Lookup PR noPR
412/1854, 238 tons   TNA, BT 111/6-2, image 1 
412/1854, previously London 148/1848  TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 63 
Melbourne130/1854, Sail, 20 tons   41464 View details for this ONRSS, Appropriation Books TNA BT 98 Data post 1855 
Newcastle94/1847, 205 tons  Lost TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 30TNA BT 98 Data post 185575/2262 Lookup PR noPR
94/1847, 205 tons   TNA, BT 162/19-05, folio 179, 185075/2262 Lookup PR noPR
Poole14/1834, 19 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 32TNA BT 98 Data post 1855 
3/1847, 15 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 3379/163 Lookup PR noPR
16/1849, 17 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 6679/214 Lookup PR noPR
16/1849, 18 tons   TNA, BT 162/19-05, folio 200, 185079/214 Lookup PR noPR
Portsmouth22/1837, 26 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 34TNA BT 98 Data post 1855 
22/1837, 26 tons   TNA, BT 162/19-05, folio 201, 1850 
Pwllheli18/1840, 38 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 3TNA BT 98 Data post 1855 
4/1849, 38 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 77117/801 Lookup PR noPR
4/1849, 38 tons   TNA, BT 162/19-01, folio 37, 1850117/801 Lookup PR noPR
Sligo3/1845, 127 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 37TNA BT 98 Data post 1855 
3/1846, 127 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 38 
Southampton30/1827, 5 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 39TNA BT 98 Data post 1855 
30/1827, 5 tons   TNA, BT 162/19-07, folio 244, 1850 
17/1846, 26 tons   TNA, BT 111/29-5, image 14, row 4090/322 Lookup PR noPR
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