Ships shown as registered at Adelaide in the Mercantile Navy List for 1940

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

How to search for ships by port

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.

Reading the results

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.

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 89. Select page: Next | 1 | 2 | Last
Ship Sort by name Official number Sort by official number DetailsMNL Crew lists Link
ACTIVE64218Auxilliary motor, Ketch, page 890 View entry for ACTIVE in MNL 1940, page 890 MHACLIPMore...
ADA BELL793331893, Steam View entry for ADA BELL in MNL 1940, page 4 MHACLIPMore...
ADONIS32126Sail, Barge View entry for ADONIS in MNL 1940, page 891 MHACLIPMore...
ALBEMARLE89408Sail View entry for ALBEMARLE in MNL 1940, page 893 MHACLIPMore...
ALBERT79338Sail View entry for ALBERT in MNL 1940, page 893 MHACLIPMore...
ALERT575351921, Auxilliary motor, page 439 View entry for ALERT in MNL 1940, page 439 MHACLIPMore...
Auxilliary motor, Ketch, page 894 View entry for ALERT in MNL 1940, page 894 
ALICE79345Sail, Barge View entry for ALICE in MNL 1940, page 895 MHACLIPMore...
ANNIE WATT575121925, Auxilliary motor, page 449 View entry for ANNIE WATT in MNL 1940, page 449 MHACLIPMore...
Auxilliary motor, Ketch, page 901 View entry for ANNIE WATT in MNL 1940, page 901 
AVOCA747841893, Steam View entry for AVOCA in MNL 1940, page 24 MHACLIPMore...
AVOCET1560011930, Motor View entry for AVOCET in MNL 1940, page 459 MHACLIPMore...
BETH1372431929, Auxilliary motor, page 470 View entry for BETH in MNL 1940, page 470 MHACLIPMore...
BETTY JOAN1560081933, Auxilliary motor, page 471 View entry for BETTY JOAN in MNL 1940, page 471 MHACLIPMore...
BLUE BELL836681883, Steam View entry for BLUE BELL in MNL 1940, page 44 MHACLIPMore...
BOURKE74792Sail, Barge View entry for BOURKE in MNL 1940, page 920 MHACLIPMore...
CAPELLA57532Auxilliary motor, Ketch, page 931 View entry for CAPELLA in MNL 1940, page 931 MHACLIPMore...
CATO793461883, Steam View entry for CATO in MNL 1940, page 68 MHACLIPMore...
CECELIA64222Auxilliary motor, Ketch, page 934 View entry for CECELIA in MNL 1940, page 934 MHACLIPMore...
Auxilliary motor, Ketch, page 935 View entry for CECILIA in MNL 1940, page 935 
CITY OF OXFORD936301897, Steam View entry for CITY OF OXFORD in MNL 1940, page 79 MHACLIPMore...
CLEMINTINA71775Auxilliary motor, Ketch, page 941 View entry for CLEMINTINA in MNL 1940, page 941 MHACLIPMore...
COBAR79342Sail, Barge View entry for COBAR in MNL 1940, page 942 MHACLIPMore...
CROUPIER79332Sail View entry for CROUPIER in MNL 1940, page 947 MHACLIPMore...
DUCK74776Sail, Barge View entry for DUCK in MNL 1940, page 963 MHACLIPMore...
EDITH894391896, Steam View entry for EDITH in MNL 1940, page 119 MHACLIPMore...
EVA117417Auxilliary motor, Ketch, page 980 View entry for EVA in MNL 1940, page 980 MHACLIPMore...
FEDERAL1174131903, Steam View entry for FEDERAL in MNL 1940, page 135 MHACLIPMore...
FIDES137242Auxilliary motor, Schooner, page 986 View entry for FIDES in MNL 1940, page 986 MHACLIPMore...
FREE SELECTOR71761Auxilliary motor, Ketch, page 992 View entry for FREE SELECTOR in MNL 1940, page 992 MHACLIPMore...
GEM746521883, Steam View entry for GEM in MNL 1940, page 149 MHACLIPMore...
GOOLWA40521Sail View entry for GOOLWA in MNL 1940, page 1007 MHACLIPMore...
GOOLWA555841878, Steam View entry for GOOLWA in MNL 1940, page 157 MHACLIPMore...
GOULBURN89427Sail, Barge View entry for GOULBURN in MNL 1940, page 1008 MHACLIPMore...
GRELKA1317541927, Motor View entry for GRELKA in MNL 1940, page 584 MHACLIPMore...
HAIDEE74681Sail, Cutter View entry for HAIDEE in MNL 1940, page 1015 MHACLIPMore...
HARTLEY79315Sail View entry for HARTLEY in MNL 1940, page 1018 MHACLIPMore...
HAWTHORN57562Auxilliary motor, Ketch, page 1019 View entry for HAWTHORN in MNL 1940, page 1019 MHACLIPMore...
HENRY31531Sail, Ketch View entry for HENRY in MNL 1940, page 1021 MHACLIPMore...
J H P52369Sail View entry for J H P in MNL 1940, page 1035 MHACLIPMore...
JANDRA894361894, Steam View entry for JANDRA in MNL 1940, page 193 MHACLIPMore...
JOLLY MILLER556101866, Steam View entry for JOLLY MILLER in MNL 1940, page 198 MHACLIPMore...
LAPWING32061Sail, Cutter View entry for LAPWING in MNL 1940, page 1064 MHACLIPMore...
LASS OF GAWLER55608Sail, Cutter View entry for LASS OF GAWLER in MNL 1940, page 1064 MHACLIPMore...
LOCH TAY60468Sail View entry for LOCH TAY in MNL 1940, page 1075 MHACLIPMore...
MAGIC101119Sail, Cutter View entry for MAGIC in MNL 1940, page 1088 MHACLIPMore...
MALCOLM71769Sail, Ketch View entry for MALCOLM in MNL 1940, page 1090 MHACLIPMore...
MARY74774Auxilliary motor, Ketch, page 1097 View entry for MARY in MNL 1940, page 1097 MHACLIPMore...
MARY ANN74789Sail, Barge View entry for MARY ANN in MNL 1940, page 1098 MHACLIPMore...
MARY LOUIS74799Sail, Cutter View entry for MARY LOUIS in MNL 1940, page 1100 MHACLIPMore...
Page 1 of 2.    Records 1 to 50 of 89. Select page: Next | 1 | 2 | Last
Navigation up arrow