Ships shown as registered at Fort William, 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  ? .

Records for Fort William, Ontario may also be found under Port Arthur, Ontario.

Click a port name to see the records for that port

To show records for all the ports together, please click here

Page 1 of 1.    Records 1 to 38 of 38.
Ship Sort by name Official number Sort by official number DetailsMNL Crew lists Link
ADALINE V1341981922, Steam View entry for ADALINE V in MNL 1940, page 4 MHACLIPMore...
ANNA C MINCH1531131926, Steam View entry for ANNA C MINCH in MNL 1940, page 14 MHACLIPMore...
BRICOLDOC1531111926, Steam View entry for BRICOLDOC in MNL 1940, page 50 MHACLIPMore...
CANADOC1165761926, Steam View entry for CANADOC in MNL 1940, page 62 MHACLIPMore...
CARTIERDOC1494551930, Steam View entry for CARTIERDOC in MNL 1940, page 67 MHACLIPMore...
COLLINGDOC1477801939, Steam View entry for COLLINGDOC in MNL 1940, page 86 MHACLIPMore...
COTEAUDOC1495001930, Steam View entry for COTEAUDOC in MNL 1940, page 94 MHACLIPMore...
FARRANDOC1615261930, Steam View entry for FARRANDOC in MNL 1940, page 134 MHACLIPMore...
FORT WILLDOC1531141926, Steam View entry for FORT WILLDOC in MNL 1940, page 142 MHACLIPMore...
GANANDOC1615111930, Steam View entry for GANANDOC in MNL 1940, page 147 MHACLIPMore...
HAMILDOC1494331927, Steam View entry for HAMILDOC in MNL 1940, page 166 MHACLIPMore...
KENORDOC1477821926, Steam View entry for KENORDOC in MNL 1940, page 204 MHACLIPMore...
KINGDOC1494291927, Steam View entry for KINGDOC in MNL 1940, page 208 MHACLIPMore...
LACHINEDOC1494301927, Steam View entry for LACHINEDOC in MNL 1940, page 216 MHACLIPMore...
LAVALDOC1494561930, Steam View entry for LAVALDOC in MNL 1940, page 223 MHACLIPMore...
LAWRENDOC1615131930, Steam View entry for LAWRENDOC in MNL 1940, page 224 MHACLIPMore...
MANTADOC1165801926, Steam View entry for MANTADOC in MNL 1940, page 246 MHACLIPMore...
MARGUERITE W1531201937, Steam View entry for MARGUERITE W in MNL 1940, page 248 MHACLIPMore...
MONDOC1494591930, Steam View entry for MONDOC in MNL 1940, page 261 MHACLIPMore...
NEWBRUNDOC1494661930, Steam View entry for NEWBRUNDOC in MNL 1940, page 273 MHACLIPMore...
NORTH SHORE SUPPLY1531181927, Motor View entry for NORTH SHORE SUPPLY in MNL 1940, page 721 MHACLIPMore...
NOVADOC1494651930, Steam View entry for NOVADOC in MNL 1940, page 279 MHACLIPMore...
ONTADOC1531121926, Steam View entry for ONTADOC in MNL 1940, page 287 MHACLIPMore...
PORTADOC1472461939, Steam View entry for PORTADOC in MNL 1940, page 305 MHACLIPMore...
PRESCODOC1615141930, Steam View entry for PRESCODOC in MNL 1940, page 306 MHACLIPMore...
PRINDOC1165781926, Steam View entry for PRINDOC in MNL 1940, page 309 MHACLIPMore...
QUEDOC1309791926, Steam View entry for QUEDOC in MNL 1940, page 311 MHACLIPMore...
SARNIADOC1494961913, Steam View entry for SARNIADOC in MNL 1940, page 343 MHACLIPMore...
SASKADOC1165791926, Steam View entry for SASKADOC in MNL 1940, page 343 MHACLIPMore...
SOODOC1531171926, Steam View entry for SOODOC in MNL 1940, page 361 MHACLIPMore...
SORELDOC1494601930, Steam View entry for SORELDOC in MNL 1940, page 361 MHACLIPMore...
THOMAS CRAIGIE1531191932, Steam View entry for THOMAS CRAIGIE in MNL 1940, page 387 MHACLIPMore...
THORDOC1254421925, Steam View entry for THORDOC in MNL 1940, page 388 MHACLIPMore...
TORONDOC1494311927, Steam View entry for TORONDOC in MNL 1940, page 392 MHACLIPMore...
TROISDOC1494621930, Steam View entry for TROISDOC in MNL 1940, page 396 MHACLIPMore...
VANDOC1531151926, Steam View entry for VANDOC in MNL 1940, page 402 MHACLIPMore...
WELLANDOC1494351927, Steam View entry for WELLANDOC in MNL 1940, page 416 MHACLIPMore...
WINDOC1531161899, Steam View entry for WINDOC in MNL 1940, page 422 MHACLIPMore...
Page 1 of 1.    Records 1 to 38 of 38.
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