Ships shown as registered at Canso 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 5.    Records 1 to 50 of 249. Select page: Next | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Last
Ship Sort by name Official number Sort by official number DetailsMNL Crew lists Link
ADELIA L1585271934, Motor View entry for ADELIA L in MNL 1940, page 435 MHACLIPMore...
AGNES S1524701928, Motor View entry for AGNES S in MNL 1940, page 437 MHACLIPMore...
ALFRED T1590231936, Motor View entry for ALFRED T in MNL 1940, page 440 MHACLIPMore...
ALICE J DAVIS107992Sail, Schooner View entry for ALICE J DAVIS in MNL 1940, page 896 MHACLIPMore...
ALL ALONE1717521939, Motor View entry for ALL ALONE in MNL 1940, page 442 MHACLIPMore...
ALVIN A1703491938, Motor View entry for ALVIN A in MNL 1940, page 444 MHACLIPMore...
AMORITA F1564071929, Motor View entry for AMORITA F in MNL 1940, page 445 MHACLIPMore...
AMY H1584481933, Motor View entry for AMY H in MNL 1940, page 446 MHACLIPMore...
ANGUS L1703431937, Motor View entry for ANGUS L in MNL 1940, page 447 MHACLIPMore...
ANNIE ROONEY1590161936, Motor View entry for ANNIE ROONEY in MNL 1940, page 449 MHACLIPMore...
ARNLACK1717641939, Motor View entry for ARNLACK in MNL 1940, page 453 MHACLIPMore...
ARTHENA M1400771936, Motor View entry for ARTHENA M in MNL 1940, page 454 MHACLIPMore...
AUDREY L1584491933, Motor View entry for AUDREY L in MNL 1940, page 458 MHACLIPMore...
AWDRY1717551939, Motor View entry for AWDRY in MNL 1940, page 460 MHACLIPMore...
B & A DAVID1588671935, Motor View entry for B & A DAVID in MNL 1940, page 462 MHACLIPMore...
B R C NO 11569911933, Motor View entry for B R C NO 1 in MNL 1940, page 461 MHACLIPMore...
B R C NO 21569921933, Motor View entry for B R C NO 2 in MNL 1940, page 461 MHACLIPMore...
B S PYCHE1590301937, Motor View entry for B S PYCHE in MNL 1940, page 462 MHACLIPMore...
B W1717501939, Motor View entry for B W in MNL 1940, page 461 MHACLIPMore...
BERYL S1717361939, Auxilliary motor, page 469 View entry for BERYL S in MNL 1940, page 469 MHACLIPMore...
Auxilliary motor, Sloop, page 914 View entry for BERYL S in MNL 1940, page 914 
BEULAH S1588721936, Motor View entry for BEULAH S in MNL 1940, page 471 MHACLIPMore...
BLACK CAT1717571939, Motor View entry for BLACK CAT in MNL 1940, page 473 MHACLIPMore...
BLANCHE112016Sail, Schooner View entry for BLANCHE in MNL 1940, page 917 MHACLIPMore...
BLUE DOG1584541933, Motor View entry for BLUE DOG in MNL 1940, page 474 MHACLIPMore...
BUDDY T1590201936, Auxilliary motor, page 485 View entry for BUDDY T in MNL 1940, page 485 MHACLIPMore...
Auxilliary motor, Sloop, page 923 View entry for BUDDY T in MNL 1940, page 923 
C L R1524641928, Motor View entry for C L R in MNL 1940, page 487 MHACLIPMore...
CAL & DAD1703421937, Motor View entry for CAL & DAD in MNL 1940, page 488 MHACLIPMore...
CALCEOLARIA1588791936, Motor View entry for CALCEOLARIA in MNL 1940, page 488 MHACLIPMore...
CAMILLA R1524691928, Motor View entry for CAMILLA R in MNL 1940, page 489 MHACLIPMore...
CAP1703391937, Motor View entry for CAP in MNL 1940, page 490 MHACLIPMore...
CARMAN R1703351937, Motor View entry for CARMAN R in MNL 1940, page 493 MHACLIPMore...
CAVEAT1703621938, Motor View entry for CAVEAT in MNL 1940, page 496 MHACLIPMore...
CECIL DOUGLAS1584451933, Motor View entry for CECIL DOUGLAS in MNL 1940, page 497 MHACLIPMore...
COLEMAN N1564171930, Motor View entry for COLEMAN N in MNL 1940, page 507 MHACLIPMore...
CORINNE M1588481935, Motor View entry for CORINNE M in MNL 1940, page 511 MHACLIPMore...
CYR1588651935, Motor View entry for CYR in MNL 1940, page 517 MHACLIPMore...
D'ARIEL126296Sail, Schooner View entry for D'ARIEL in MNL 1940, page 952 MHACLIPMore...
DAISY R CORKUM1584471933, Motor View entry for DAISY R CORKUM in MNL 1940, page 518 MHACLIPMore...
DAN CASEY1717491939, Motor View entry for DAN CASEY in MNL 1940, page 518 MHACLIPMore...
DONALD A HARRIS1588751936, Motor View entry for DONALD A HARRIS in MNL 1940, page 528 MHACLIPMore...
DORIS K1717381939, Motor View entry for DORIS K in MNL 1940, page 529 MHACLIPMore...
DORIS M1588771936, Motor View entry for DORIS M in MNL 1940, page 529 MHACLIPMore...
DOROTHY R1564011929, Motor View entry for DOROTHY R in MNL 1940, page 531 MHACLIPMore...
DORT B1717471939, Motor View entry for DORT B in MNL 1940, page 531 MHACLIPMore...
DOT & MIKE1588711936, Motor View entry for DOT & MIKE in MNL 1940, page 531 MHACLIPMore...
DOT & PEG1703481938, Motor View entry for DOT & PEG in MNL 1940, page 531 MHACLIPMore...
EDISON & BONNIE1717311938, Motor View entry for EDISON & BONNIE in MNL 1940, page 538 MHACLIPMore...
EDITH B1569961934, Motor View entry for EDITH B in MNL 1940, page 538 MHACLIPMore...
Page 1 of 5.    Records 1 to 50 of 249. Select page: Next | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Last
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