Masters of British Merchantmen
(1834) Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping was established in 1834, following the demise of two earlier societies for registering shipping in Britain. The new register in 1834 was created from an alphabetical list of British ships with no more detail than name, master's name, tonnage, and port to which they belonged. Lloyd's insurance syndicate provided £1000 for the establishment of a new system of surveyors, and as the year progressed many of the entries in the register were then annotated with additional information - type of vessel (Bk, barque; Bg, brig; Cr, cutter; Dr, dogger; G, galliott; H, hoy; K, ketch; Lr, lugger; S, ship; Sk, smack; Sp, sloop; Sr, schooner; St, schoot; Sw, snow; Yt, yacht), place and year of build, owners, destined voyage, and classification of the vessel and its stores, with the month (indicated by the final number in the last column) of inspection. Underneath each of these amended entries details were given of construction and repair, with year - s., sheathed; d., doubled; C., coppered; I. B., iron bolts; s. M., sheathed with marine metal; s. Y. M., sheathed with yellow metal; F., felt; PH., patent hair; Cl., clincher; len., lengthened; lrp., large repairs; trp., thorough repairs; ND., new deck; M. TSds., new top-sides; W. C., wales cased; NW., new wales; Srprs, some repairs - and, in italics, the timber of the ship is described - B. B., black birch; Bh, beech; C., cedar; E., elm; F., fir; G., gum; Ght., greenheart; Hk., hackmatack; L., locust; L. O., live oak; P., pine; P. P., pitch pine; R. P., red pine; Y. P., yellow pine; S., spruce; T., teak; W. O., white oak. The sample scan is from the main list. The third column, reserved for masters' names, is not particularly wide; with short surnames, an initial will be given; but longer surnames omit the initials, and even longer surnames are abbreviated. This is the index to masters in the main list. Often new masters had been appointed by the time of survey, and their names are added in slightly smaller type under the original master's names in the third column. These new masters are also included in this index.M'GRKLNG. Cost: £6.00. | Sample scan, click to enlarge
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