Ships shown as registered at Sault Saint Marie, Ontario 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 57. Select page: Next | 1 | 2 | Last
Ship Sort by name Official number Sort by official number DetailsMNL Crew lists Link
A G T NO 1134615Sail View entry for A G T NO 1 in MNL 1940, page 887 MHACLIPMore...
A J LOWE1384671920, Steam View entry for A J LOWE in MNL 1940, page 2 MHACLIPMore...
AGOMING1503381926, Motor View entry for AGOMING in MNL 1940, page 437 MHACLIPMore...
ALGOCEN1581641935, Steam View entry for ALGOCEN in MNL 1940, page 9 MHACLIPMore...
ALGOSOO1307761913, Steam View entry for ALGOSOO in MNL 1940, page 9 MHACLIPMore...
ALGOSTEEL1581651935, Steam View entry for ALGOSTEEL in MNL 1940, page 9 MHACLIPMore...
BABY RUSSEL1581701938, Steam View entry for BABY RUSSEL in MNL 1940, page 26 MHACLIPMore...
BILLIE BLAKE1581621932, Steam View entry for BILLIE BLAKE in MNL 1940, page 42 MHACLIPMore...
BUSTER134389Sail View entry for BUSTER in MNL 1940, page 924 MHACLIPMore...
CARIBOU1162491904, Steam View entry for CARIBOU in MNL 1940, page 66 MHACLIPMore...
CHARLES MCGRATH1544881932, Steam View entry for CHARLES MCGRATH in MNL 1940, page 72 MHACLIPMore...
CLARA HICKLER968131910, Steam View entry for CLARA HICKLER in MNL 1940, page 83 MHACLIPMore...
CONTINENTAL134388Sail View entry for CONTINENTAL in MNL 1940, page 945 MHACLIPMore...
DRILL BOAT NO 5130771Sail View entry for DRILL BOAT NO 5 in MNL 1940, page 962 MHACLIPMore...
EDITH HOPE1544871932, Steam View entry for EDITH HOPE in MNL 1940, page 120 MHACLIPMore...
ELSIE JONES1503371923, Steam View entry for ELSIE JONES in MNL 1940, page 124 MHACLIPMore...
EVERARD1074841900, Steam View entry for EVERARD in MNL 1940, page 130 MHACLIPMore...
F B WRIGHT1384631919, Motor View entry for F B WRIGHT in MNL 1940, page 556 MHACLIPMore...
FEDORA II1346121915, Motor View entry for FEDORA II in MNL 1940, page 558 MHACLIPMore...
FLAGSHIP1074851901, Steam View entry for FLAGSHIP in MNL 1940, page 137 MHACLIPMore...
G A DALLEY1581661935, Motor View entry for G A DALLEY in MNL 1940, page 570 MHACLIPMore...
GLEN ALMOND1503331922, Motor View entry for GLEN ALMOND in MNL 1940, page 577 MHACLIPMore...
GOWANDA1224321907, Motor View entry for GOWANDA in MNL 1940, page 582 MHACLIPMore...
H 24134199Sail View entry for H 24 in MNL 1940, page 1012 MHACLIPMore...
H 44134373Sail View entry for H 44 in MNL 1940, page 1012 MHACLIPMore...
J A FISHER1544831928, Motor View entry for J A FISHER in MNL 1940, page 616 MHACLIPMore...
J F BOYD NO 1130777Sail View entry for J F BOYD NO 1 in MNL 1940, page 1036 MHACLIPMore...
J F BOYD NO 3134195Sail View entry for J F BOYD NO 3 in MNL 1940, page 1037 MHACLIPMore...
J F BOYD NO 4134191Sail View entry for J F BOYD NO 4 in MNL 1940, page 1037 MHACLIPMore...
J F BOYD NO 5134381Sail View entry for J F BOYD NO 5 in MNL 1940, page 1037 MHACLIPMore...
J F BOYD NO 6134382Sail View entry for J F BOYD NO 6 in MNL 1940, page 1037 MHACLIPMore...
JAMES J BAXTER JR1581611932, Steam View entry for JAMES J BAXTER JR in MNL 1940, page 192 MHACLIPMore...
JAMES RYE NO 2150331Sail View entry for JAMES RYE NO 2 in MNL 1940, page 1039 MHACLIPMore...
JOPINE1581671937, Motor View entry for JOPINE in MNL 1940, page 625 MHACLIPMore...
L S NO 3126862Sail View entry for L S NO 3 in MNL 1940, page 1059 MHACLIPMore...
LENA JACKSON1268611910, Steam View entry for LENA JACKSON in MNL 1940, page 225 MHACLIPMore...
LORNE HALE1170351906, Steam View entry for LORNE HALE in MNL 1940, page 236 MHACLIPMore...
M ROUSSEAU1544891932, Steam View entry for M ROUSSEAU in MNL 1940, page 240 MHACLIPMore...
MACK JEAN1307781913, Steam View entry for MACK JEAN in MNL 1940, page 241 MHACLIPMore...
MARIEL1307721912, Steam View entry for MARIEL in MNL 1940, page 249 MHACLIPMore...
MCLEAN NO 3134380Sail View entry for MCLEAN NO 3 in MNL 1940, page 1086 MHACLIPMore...
MCLEAN NO 4154482Sail View entry for MCLEAN NO 4 in MNL 1940, page 1086 MHACLIPMore...
MISSISSAUGA1544861931, Steam View entry for MISSISSAUGA in MNL 1940, page 260 MHACLIPMore...
NADINE107681Sail, Barge View entry for NADINE in MNL 1940, page 1118 MHACLIPMore...
NEEBISH NO 1134617Sail View entry for NEEBISH NO 1 in MNL 1940, page 1121 MHACLIPMore...
NORCO1581681938, Steam View entry for NORCO in MNL 1940, page 276 MHACLIPMore...
PEGGY M1581631934, Steam View entry for PEGGY M in MNL 1940, page 296 MHACLIPMore...
QUEEN II1581691938, Motor View entry for QUEEN II in MNL 1940, page 756 MHACLIPMore...
SAINT JOE ISLAND FERRY1544901932, Motor View entry for SAINT JOE ISLAND FERRY in MNL 1940, page 791 MHACLIPMore...
SHIPMAN NO 4134618Sail View entry for SHIPMAN NO 4 in MNL 1940, page 1194 MHACLIPMore...
Page 1 of 2.    Records 1 to 50 of 57. Select page: Next | 1 | 2 | Last
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