Ships shown as registered at Chester in the Mercantile Navy List for 1930

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
AGNES CRAIG887051923, Auxilliary motor, page 607 View entry for AGNES CRAIG in MNL 1930, page 607 MHACLIPMore...
Auxilliary motor, Schooner, page 873 View entry for AGNES CRAIG in MNL 1930, page 873 
ALITA1456971921, Motor View entry for ALITA in MNL 1930, page 610 MHACLIPMore...
BARRETT1458901923, Motor View entry for BARRETT in MNL 1930, page 623 MHACLIPMore...
BEND OR962821891, Steam View entry for BEND OR in MNL 1930, page 53 MHACLIPMore...
BETAL124629Sail View entry for BETAL in MNL 1930, page 900 MHACLIPMore...
CARITA1246261913, Motor View entry for CARITA in MNL 1930, page 640 MHACLIPMore...
CARMENITA1456951921, Motor View entry for CARMENITA in MNL 1930, page 641 MHACLIPMore...
CRISTO1359291928, Motor View entry for CRISTO in MNL 1930, page 655 MHACLIPMore...
DALPHA124628Sail View entry for DALPHA in MNL 1930, page 939 MHACLIPMore...
DOON63166Sail, Flat View entry for DOON in MNL 1930, page 945 MHACLIPMore...
DORITA1456901921, Motor View entry for DORITA in MNL 1930, page 664 MHACLIPMore...
DUCHESS76552Sail, Schooner View entry for DUCHESS in MNL 1930, page 949 MHACLIPMore...
ELDORITA1456891921, Motor View entry for ELDORITA in MNL 1930, page 670 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESBANK146406Sail View entry for ELLESBANK in MNL 1930, page 960 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESBAY146404Sail View entry for ELLESBAY in MNL 1930, page 960 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESBEACH146405Sail View entry for ELLESBEACH in MNL 1930, page 960 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESBOROUGH1456921921, Steam View entry for ELLESBOROUGH in MNL 1930, page 174 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESBRIDGE144880Sail View entry for ELLESBRIDGE in MNL 1930, page 960 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESBROOK145686Sail View entry for ELLESBROOK in MNL 1930, page 960 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESBURN1448791920, Steam View entry for ELLESBURN in MNL 1930, page 174 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESCAVE146375Sail View entry for ELLESCAVE in MNL 1930, page 960 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESDALE144878Sail View entry for ELLESDALE in MNL 1930, page 960 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESFIELD145694Sail View entry for ELLESFIELD in MNL 1930, page 960 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESFORD145687Sail View entry for ELLESFORD in MNL 1930, page 960 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESHILL146408Sail View entry for ELLESHILL in MNL 1930, page 960 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESLAKE146396Sail View entry for ELLESLAKE in MNL 1930, page 960 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESMOOR146409Sail View entry for ELLESMOOR in MNL 1930, page 960 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESMOUNT146397Sail View entry for ELLESMOUNT in MNL 1930, page 960 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESPOOL1456881921, Steam View entry for ELLESPOOL in MNL 1930, page 174 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESPORT1464011925, Motor View entry for ELLESPORT in MNL 1930, page 671 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESSTED146403Sail View entry for ELLESSTED in MNL 1930, page 960 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESTOWN145700Sail View entry for ELLESTOWN in MNL 1930, page 960 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESWATER1456931921, Steam View entry for ELLESWATER in MNL 1930, page 174 MHACLIPMore...
ELLESWEIR1463981924, Steam View entry for ELLESWEIR in MNL 1930, page 174 MHACLIPMore...
EMMA & ESTER58212Sail, Schooner View entry for EMMA & ESTER in MNL 1930, page 963 MHACLIPMore...
ETHEL MAY76554Sail, Schooner View entry for ETHEL MAY in MNL 1930, page 967 MHACLIPMore...
FARFIELD1456961921, Steam View entry for FARFIELD in MNL 1930, page 191 MHACLIPMore...
FELITA1374071915, Motor View entry for FELITA in MNL 1930, page 681 MHACLIPMore...
FER1448851921, Motor View entry for FER in MNL 1930, page 681 MHACLIPMore...
FLEURITA1246271913, Motor View entry for FLEURITA in MNL 1930, page 683 MHACLIPMore...
FLORETTE1270831924, Motor View entry for FLORETTE in MNL 1930, page 683 MHACLIPMore...
Auxilliary motor, Ketch, page 978 View entry for FLORETTE in MNL 1930, page 978 
FORWARD75248Sail, Schooner View entry for FORWARD in MNL 1930, page 980 MHACLIPMore...
GALLOVEDIAN588101927, Auxilliary motor, page 688 View entry for GALLOVEDIAN in MNL 1930, page 688 MHACLIPMore...
Auxilliary motor, Fore and A, page 988 View entry for GALLOVEDIAN in MNL 1930, page 988 
GEORGITA1370991920, Motor View entry for GEORGITA in MNL 1930, page 690 MHACLIPMore...
HAWARDEN CASTLE1464001926, Auxilliary motor, page 701 View entry for HAWARDEN CASTLE in MNL 1930, page 701 MHACLIPMore...
Auxilliary motor, Schooner, page 1010 View entry for HAWARDEN CASTLE in MNL 1930, page 1010 
INDORITA1448841921, Motor View entry for INDORITA in MNL 1930, page 709 MHACLIPMore...
Page 1 of 2.    Records 1 to 50 of 89. Select page: Next | 1 | 2 | Last
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