Become a Diving Detective

So, you’ve dived that pile of scrap that was once a ship. Want to know what it was? What did she look like? Where was she built? Who sailed on her? Where had she been? What was she carrying? How did she end up where you found her? The list goes on.

If you’ve asked yourself any of these questions then it’s time you became a Dive Detective.

Assuming you have a name a good starting point would be to look it up in a Diver Guide. But this will only give you a very brief outline of the ship’s history, only an occasional picture and sometimes even our old club member Kendall McDonald wasn’t always spot on.

Well there is a whole wealth of information out there if you know where to look. Some of it is internet based and some will require you to do some hands-on document research. Hopefully this article will get you started.

Royal Navy Vessels

Most Admiralty papers are held at The National Archives (TNA) at Kew. A document search can be carried out on-line and this may lead to a visit to examine the documents.

They hold the main run of logbooks by captains, masters, surgeons and ships’ logs. They also hold copies of captains’ and Admiralty correspondence.

The National Maritime Museum (NMM) at Greenwich, Manuscripts Department hold Lieutenants’ logs, Navy Board Letters and personal collections of individual’s logs and correspondence.

The Caird Library at the NMM also has a great number of publications including lists of Navy ships (Colledge is a good start point), 20^th Century Warship Histories, Microfiche of vessel histories, World War II movement books and the Navy List.

Merchant Navy Vessels

There are various sources of information available for the Merchant Navy. Governmental records, Lloyds Records and Company records. These are held in various locations, TNA, NMM, Guildhall Library (Lloyd’s records) and Local Record Offices.

The NMM hold Official Logbooks, crew agreements, Lloyds Register and Survey Reports, Lloyds List and company records of P&O, New Zealand Shipping, British India, Shaw Savill and Albion, Michael Henley and Son and General Steam Navigation.

The Lloyds Register is an annual list of ships the first copy being 1764 then annually from 1778. This gives details of the vessel and its owner (tip! look in the back for any name changes). Lloyds List is a newspaper, eventually published daily giving shipping movements and casualties (wrecks). A complete run from 1741 and a microfilm index is available from 1838-1927.

The Lloyds Register Survey Reports record plans made by surveyors for 1834-1968, usually only first report for each vessel survives. For the 20^th century only for vessels that were wrecked or lost.

Official logbooks were required to be kept by masters of ships by the Mercantile Marine Act of 1850. These are stored with any crew agreements that may have survived and are located by the vessel’s official number. Records before 1861 are stored at TNA, from then only samples were retained at both the TNA and NMM. The balance is retained by the Memorial University, Ontario in Canada. The exception is for WWII period which the TNA has retained.

Information relating to Registration of ships prior to 1786 can be found in various port books in the exchequer papers. After this, the Register records should be found in the relevant local port archive. The TNA may well hold contemporary transcripts.

The NMM houses Board of Trade Wreck Registers 1855-98. These provide details of the loss of the vessel, plus clippings from newspapers. Another source for enquiring into wrecks 1876-1972 can be the Central Library, Southampton.

Having found out about the history of your ship you will now want to know what it looked like, which bit of it you were diving on and when you dive it again, where to find the gold bullion!

Ships Plans are held by the NMM at the Brass Foundry, Woolwich. They have over 1 million documents consisting of the following collections:

Admiralty Collection

• The Sailing Navy 1700-1835

• The Victorian Navy 1835-1906

• The Modern Navy 1906-1960’s

• The Admiralty Merchant Collection 1945-1970

• Technical Records 1719-1960’s

• Foreign Warships 1702-1960’s ( prize ships / liberated ships / British built ships)

Merchant Collection

• The shipbuilder collections

• The ship owner collections

• Ship designer and marine workers

In addition to the above they also hold individuals collections, Lloyd’s Survey Reports and Lloyd’s Wreck Reports.

These plans normally consist of General Arrangements, showing varying degrees of detail covering inboard/outboard profile, deck/superstructure and section. The Lines plans, giving shapes of the hull and the Sail/Rigging plans, illustrating the ship’s rig and sail plan. Copies of any plan can be obtained from the NMM.

Locating a photograph of your ship is always interesting to have and looks good framed, hanging next to the ship’s bell you liberated.

 Again the NMM has a Historic Picture Collection. Accurate information and distinguishing features are required to ensure to correct image is located as sometimes the same ship’s name was used for different vessels and reused at different times.

The earliest negative in the NMM collection is dated 1844 and shows Brunel’s Great Britain nearing completion at Bristol.

For wartime photographs the Imperial War Museum has a collection of over 6 million images relating to conflicts after 1900.

Again TNA can help locate business records which may include photographs.

On the downside a large number of these photographs cannot be reproduced due to copyright restrictions but can be viewed for research. Having said that it still leaves several hundred thousand so don’t give up.

Obviously if your wreck was before1839 the camera wasn’t around but you may still find an image in the form of a painting or drawing. Again the NMM has a vast collection of oil paintings, prints and drawings from the earliest days of sail to modern times.

Finally to help in your detective work you may consider looking at Ship Models. These can provide a fascinating amount of information that may not be available elsewhere. For example, that lump of brass you picked up in bridge area. It may not be shown on a plan or in a photograph but, from a detailed model it can seen as the steam whistle lever.

Most museums, both local and national have collections of models that were either made by the ship builders or individuals and can give a wide range of information.

Before visiting any archive source you should always check, either on-line or by telephone, that they have the information you require and that it is available for reference. Opening times for some archives may be different from the museum opening times and therefore should be checked together with any requirements for ID or reader’s cards.

Where to start looking

Museums and Archives:

Commercial Picture Libraries:

Specialist Sources:

The above article was based on a course run by The Open Museum at the National Maritime Museum.

Bob Digby.

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