Ships pre-1855 named POWERFUL

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 1.    Records 1 to 36 of 36.
Port of registry Details Closure Official number Source Crew lists Links Port no/PR no
Chepstow2/1845, 118 tons   TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 31, row 28TNA BT 98 Data post 1855 
2/1845,  Lost 1850 TNA, BT 162/19-02, folio 49, 1850 
Cork58/1854, 78 tons  Registry transferred to Shields 66/1855 TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 32, row 56TNA BT 98 Data post 185529/1127 Lookup PR noPR
Glasgow87/1846, 45 tons  Broken up TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 31, row 33TNA BT 98 Data post 185544/847 Lookup PR noPR
Greenock14/1854, previously Shields 108/1849  TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 32, row 30TNA BT 98 Data post 1855 
14/1854, 17 tons   TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 32, row 52 
14/1854, Steam, 17 tons   7487 View details for this ONRSS, Appropriation Books  
Hartlepool70/1845, 20 tons  Registry transferred to Sunderland 35/1855 TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 32, row 24TNA BT 98 Data post 1855118/70 Lookup PR noPR
70/1845, 20 tons   TNA, BT 162/19-03, folio 102, 1850118/70 Lookup PR noPR
Liverpool284/1845, 37 tons   TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 31, row 40TNA BT 98 Data post 185562/2052 Lookup PR noPR
63/1849, 32 tons   TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 31, row 7762/3041 Lookup PR noPR
63/1849, 32 tons   TNA, BT 162/19-04, folio 140, 185062/3041 Lookup PR noPR
63/1849, Steam, 32 tons   10582 View details for this ONRSS, Appropriation Books 62/3041 Lookup PR noPR
London113/1844, 37 tons   TNA, BT 111/5-5, image 11TNA BT 98 Data post 1855 
113/1844, 37 tons   TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 31, row 1 
292/1846, 135 tons   TNA, BT 111/7-1, image 24 
292/1846, 135 tons   TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 31, row 44 
76/1849, 29 tons   TNA, BT 111/7-1, image 2764/5370 Lookup PR noPR
76/1849, 29 tons   TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 32, row 364/5370 Lookup PR noPR
166/1855, 367 tons   TNA, BT 111/7-1, image 34 
166/1855, 367 tons   TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 32, row 65 
222/1855, 495 tons   TNA, BT 111/7-1, image 34 
222/1855, 495 tons   TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 32, row 69 
Newcastle68/1844,   TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 31, row 14TNA BT 98 Data post 185575/1550 Lookup PR noPR
45/1855, previously Shields 168/1854  TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 32, row 54 
45/1855, 25 tons  Sold abroad TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 32, row 70 
Portsmouth13/1847, 54 tons   TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 31, row 53TNA BT 98 Data post 185580/353 Lookup PR noPR
13/1847,  Lost 1850 TNA, BT 162/19-06, folio 204, 185080/353 Lookup PR noPR
Shields108/1849, 17 tons  Registry transferred to Greenock 14/1854 TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 32, row 30TNA BT 98 Data post 1855124/358 Lookup PR noPR
108/1849, 17 tons   TNA, BT 162/19-06, folio 236, 1850124/358 Lookup PR noPR
168/1854, 21 tons  Registry transferred to Newcastle 45/1855 TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 32, row 54 Data post 1855124/1508 Lookup PR noPR
66/1855, previously Cork 58/1854  TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 32, row 56 
66/1855, 78 tons   TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 32, row 62 
25/1856, 19 tons   TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 33, row 7 
Sunderland35/1855, previously Hartlepool 70/1845  TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 32, row 24TNA BT 98 Data post 1855 
35/1855, 20 tons   TNA, BT 111/31-4, image 32, row 60 
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