This collection is composed of British Naval Office shipping lists between the years of 1678 and 1825. These 150 years saw the rise of British naval power across the globe, which significantly contributed to the proliferation of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the eventual establishment of the British Empire.

Information provided by the shipping lists includes the name of the vessel, the name of its home port and colony, details of the vessel’s construction, the name of the owner(s), the tonnage of the vessel, the number of guns carried, the number of crew, and the cargo carried (including enslaved people as well as raw material). Thus, the files paint a detailed picture of how triangular trade was conducted between Britain, her colonies, and lucrative markets in Europe and the Americas.

The lists contain detailed information about the conduct of trade and about the voyage patterns of vessels, their size, armament, manning and passage times

Walter E. Minchinto, University of Exeter

Insights

As these lists developed, details of where ships were built and registered were included. By comparing these lists it is possible to see who the major shipbuilding nations were and for who, during the 18th and 19th centuries.

These records cover Canadian ports from Main-a-dieu to Cumberland in Nova Scotia as well as Saint John in New Brunswick. While they don't include the American Revolution, they do take in the 1812 War.

The American records for the Eastern states cover ports from New Castle, NH to St Augustine, FL. The earliest records start in 1686 and were just handwritten lists, the latest tables of entries run until 1769.

The West Indian records extend from Bermuda to Jamaica, Trinidad and Suriname, including a number of colonies in-between. Each British colony would trade with different neighbours, see those trade links here.