Ships shown as registered at Chester in the Mercantile Navy List for 1920

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 53. Select page: Next | 1 | 2 | Last
Ship Sort by name Official number Sort by official number DetailsMNL Crew lists Link
AGNES CRAIG88705Sail, Schooner View entry for AGNES CRAIG in MNL 1920, page 671 MHACLIPMore...
BEND OR962821891, Steam View entry for BEND OR in MNL 1920, page 57 MHACLIPMore...
BETAL124629Sail View entry for BETAL in MNL 1920, page 699 MHACLIPMore...
CARITA1246261913, Motor View entry for CARITA in MNL 1920, page 92 MHACLIPMore...
DALPHA124628Sail View entry for DALPHA in MNL 1920, page 735 MHACLIPMore...
DEVA49610Sail, Schooner View entry for DEVA in MNL 1920, page 739 MHACLIPMore...
DOON63166Sail, Flat View entry for DOON in MNL 1920, page 742 MHACLIPMore...
DUCHESS76552Sail, Schooner View entry for DUCHESS in MNL 1920, page 746 MHACLIPMore...
EDWARD BATTERS1246231908, Steam View entry for EDWARD BATTERS in MNL 1920, page 173 MHACLIPMore...
ELIZABETH HYAM62773Sail, Wherry View entry for ELIZABETH HYAM in MNL 1920, page 756 MHACLIPMore...
EMMA & ESTER58212Sail, Schooner View entry for EMMA & ESTER in MNL 1920, page 762 MHACLIPMore...
EPSILON137094Sail View entry for EPSILON in MNL 1920, page 763 MHACLIPMore...
ETHEL MAY76554Sail, Schooner View entry for ETHEL MAY in MNL 1920, page 766 MHACLIPMore...
FAITHFUL88707Sail, Schooner View entry for FAITHFUL in MNL 1920, page 772 MHACLIPMore...
FEDERATION105303Sail, Jigger View entry for FEDERATION in MNL 1920, page 774 MHACLIPMore...
FELITA1374071915, Steam View entry for FELITA in MNL 1920, page 201 MHACLIPMore...
FLEURITA1246271913, Motor View entry for FLEURITA in MNL 1920, page 205 MHACLIPMore...
FORWARD75248Sail, Schooner View entry for FORWARD in MNL 1920, page 780 MHACLIPMore...
GAMMAL137093Sail View entry for GAMMAL in MNL 1920, page 787 MHACLIPMore...
HONOR STOREY1370911915, Steam View entry for HONOR STOREY in MNL 1920, page 270 MHACLIPMore...
IOTAL137095Sail View entry for IOTAL in MNL 1920, page 821 MHACLIPMore...
J & M GARRATT88702Sail, Schooner View entry for J & M GARRATT in MNL 1920, page 826 MHACLIPMore...
JANET887101889, Steam View entry for JANET in MNL 1920, page 297 MHACLIPMore...
KAPPAL137096Sail View entry for KAPPAL in MNL 1920, page 838 MHACLIPMore...
KATHERINE ELLEN29444Sail, Schooner View entry for KATHERINE ELLEN in MNL 1920, page 839 MHACLIPMore...
LAVINIA SMITH94086Sail, Ketch View entry for LAVINIA SMITH in MNL 1920, page 852 MHACLIPMore...
LEWES CASTLE1366491915, Motor View entry for LEWES CASTLE in MNL 1920, page 344 MHACLIPMore...
LORD CLIVE1044801904, Steam View entry for LORD CLIVE in MNL 1920, page 354 MHACLIPMore...
LORD STALBRIDGE1246251909, Steam View entry for LORD STALBRIDGE in MNL 1920, page 357 MHACLIPMore...
MARY ELIZABETH76551Sail, Schooner View entry for MARY ELIZABETH in MNL 1920, page 882 MHACLIPMore...
MARY JONES44050Sail, Schooner View entry for MARY JONES in MNL 1920, page 884 MHACLIPMore...
MARY PEERS67965Sail, Schooner View entry for MARY PEERS in MNL 1920, page 884 MHACLIPMore...
MOURNE1020211901, Steam View entry for MOURNE in MNL 1920, page 406 MHACLIPMore...
NANCY87279Sail, Cutter View entry for NANCY in MNL 1920, page 902 MHACLIPMore...
NOT FORGOT58204Sail, Ketch View entry for NOT FORGOT in MNL 1920, page 911 MHACLIPMore...
OGARITA1319961913, Motor View entry for OGARITA in MNL 1920, page 435 MHACLIPMore...
ORMONDE962801890, Steam View entry for ORMONDE in MNL 1920, page 442 MHACLIPMore...
PEARL791091916, Steam View entry for PEARL in MNL 1920, page 453 MHACLIPMore...
PET70524Sail, Schooner View entry for PET in MNL 1920, page 928 MHACLIPMore...
PRISCILLA58213Sail, Schooner View entry for PRISCILLA in MNL 1920, page 936 MHACLIPMore...
RALPH BROCKLEBANK1044791903, Steam View entry for RALPH BROCKLEBANK in MNL 1920, page 488 MHACLIPMore...
ROSABELLE1025971906, Steam View entry for ROSABELLE in MNL 1920, page 506 MHACLIPMore...
SAM99353Sail, Flat View entry for SAM in MNL 1920, page 961 MHACLIPMore...
SARAH LATHAM1044781915, Motor View entry for SARAH LATHAM in MNL 1920, page 528 MHACLIPMore...
SCOTSMAN1045441911, Steam View entry for SCOTSMAN in MNL 1920, page 533 MHACLIPMore...
SEA SWALLOW582061868, Steam View entry for SEA SWALLOW in MNL 1920, page 535 MHACLIPMore...
SIRENA765601883, Steam View entry for SIRENA in MNL 1920, page 548 MHACLIPMore...
THE FLYING FOX1370921915, Motor View entry for THE FLYING FOX in MNL 1920, page 208 MHACLIPMore...
TRYFAN70915Sail, Ketch View entry for TRYFAN in MNL 1920, page 1000 MHACLIPMore...
W E DORRINGTON1246211906, Steam View entry for W E DORRINGTON in MNL 1920, page 627 MHACLIPMore...
Page 1 of 2.    Records 1 to 50 of 53. Select page: Next | 1 | 2 | Last
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