Ships shown as registered at Victoria, BC 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 9.    Records 1 to 50 of 403. Select page: Next | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Last
Ship Sort by name Official number Sort by official number DetailsMNL Crew lists Link
ADAM HALL1169271905, Steam View entry for ADAM HALL in MNL 1920, page 5 MHACLIPMore...
AGNES W DODS1346601917, Motor View entry for AGNES W DODS in MNL 1920, page 8 MHACLIPMore...
AH SEE1265181910, Steam View entry for AH SEE in MNL 1920, page 9 MHACLIPMore...
AIME1164091904, Steam View entry for AIME in MNL 1920, page 9 MHACLIPMore...
ALARM1034841917, Motor View entry for ALARM in MNL 1920, page 11 MHACLIPMore...
ALERT1075291899, Steam View entry for ALERT in MNL 1920, page 14 MHACLIPMore...
ALGERINE1411451919, Steam View entry for ALGERINE in MNL 1920, page 15 MHACLIPMore...
ALTAIR1337711913, Motor View entry for ALTAIR in MNL 1920, page 19 MHACLIPMore...
AMELIA C1265051909, Steam View entry for AMELIA C in MNL 1920, page 20 MHACLIPMore...
ANAMOOSE1265081909, Steam View entry for ANAMOOSE in MNL 1920, page 21 MHACLIPMore...
ANDY1340331913, Motor View entry for ANDY in MNL 1920, page 22 MHACLIPMore...
ANGLIAN1075121898, Steam View entry for ANGLIAN in MNL 1920, page 23 MHACLIPMore...
ANNE H1387861918, Motor View entry for ANNE H in MNL 1920, page 24 MHACLIPMore...
ANNIE948971919, Steam View entry for ANNIE in MNL 1920, page 24 MHACLIPMore...
ANNIE B WHITE1342831914, Motor View entry for ANNIE B WHITE in MNL 1920, page 24 MHACLIPMore...
ARCHIE1078231900, Steam View entry for ARCHIE in MNL 1920, page 29 MHACLIPMore...
ARIADNE103487Sail, Yawl View entry for ARIADNE in MNL 1920, page 686 MHACLIPMore...
ARICIA1340211913, Steam View entry for ARICIA in MNL 1920, page 31 MHACLIPMore...
ASHIGAMIK1308891917, Motor View entry for ASHIGAMIK in MNL 1920, page 35 MHACLIPMore...
ATLAS107828Sail View entry for ATLAS in MNL 1920, page 689 MHACLIPMore...
ATLIN116921Sail View entry for ATLIN in MNL 1920, page 689 MHACLIPMore...
ATOMIC1169241905, Steam View entry for ATOMIC in MNL 1920, page 38 MHACLIPMore...
AUSTRALIAN1075251899, Steam View entry for AUSTRALIAN in MNL 1920, page 40 MHACLIPMore...
B C C NO 3121982Sail, Barge View entry for B C C NO 3 in MNL 1920, page 691 MHACLIPMore...
B C C NO 4121983Sail, Barge View entry for B C C NO 4 in MNL 1920, page 691 MHACLIPMore...
B C EXPRESS1308831912, Steam View entry for B C EXPRESS in MNL 1920, page 43 MHACLIPMore...
B C S & G CO NO 1126234Sail View entry for B C S & G CO NO 1 in MNL 1920, page 691 MHACLIPMore...
B X1265161910, Steam View entry for B X in MNL 1920, page 42 MHACLIPMore...
BAMBERTON1337611913, Motor View entry for BAMBERTON in MNL 1920, page 45 MHACLIPMore...
BAMFIELD1411471919, Motor View entry for BAMFIELD in MNL 1920, page 45 MHACLIPMore...
BARBARA YOUNT1342821914, Steam View entry for BARBARA YOUNT in MNL 1920, page 47 MHACLIPMore...
BEATRICE1001941908, Steam View entry for BEATRICE in MNL 1920, page 51 MHACLIPMore...
BEATRICE NO 3138789Sail View entry for BEATRICE NO 3 in MNL 1920, page 695 MHACLIPMore...
BEATRICE NO 4138790Sail View entry for BEATRICE NO 4 in MNL 1920, page 695 MHACLIPMore...
BEATRICE R1337651913, Motor View entry for BEATRICE R in MNL 1920, page 51 MHACLIPMore...
BEAVER1070961898, Steam View entry for BEAVER in MNL 1920, page 52 MHACLIPMore...
BERQUIST1119841915, Steam View entry for BERQUIST in MNL 1920, page 58 MHACLIPMore...
BERTHA D1269581911, Steam View entry for BERTHA D in MNL 1920, page 59 MHACLIPMore...
BERTHA L1346491917, Motor View entry for BERTHA L in MNL 1920, page 59 MHACLIPMore...
BIG SALMON121971Sail, Barge View entry for BIG SALMON in MNL 1920, page 699 MHACLIPMore...
BLANEYS1265041909, Motor View entry for BLANEYS in MNL 1920, page 63 MHACLIPMore...
BLUEBACK1346591917, Motor View entry for BLUEBACK in MNL 1920, page 64 MHACLIPMore...
BLUEBIRD II1337631913, Motor View entry for BLUEBIRD II in MNL 1920, page 65 MHACLIPMore...
BUBBLES1346351915, Motor View entry for BUBBLES in MNL 1920, page 79 MHACLIPMore...
BUNDELS1340371914, Motor View entry for BUNDELS in MNL 1920, page 80 MHACLIPMore...
BUTE1117851903, Steam View entry for BUTE in MNL 1920, page 82 MHACLIPMore...
BUTE1164071917, Steam View entry for BUTE in MNL 1920, page 82 MHACLIPMore...
BUTE NO 1122384Sail View entry for BUTE NO 1 in MNL 1920, page 707 MHACLIPMore...
BUTE NO 8134025Sail, Barge View entry for BUTE NO 8 in MNL 1920, page 707 MHACLIPMore...
C & C1387851918, Motor View entry for C & C in MNL 1920, page 82 MHACLIPMore...
Page 1 of 9.    Records 1 to 50 of 403. Select page: Next | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Last
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