Ships' Journals

The British Library holds Ships' Journals in series IOR/L/MAR/A-B 1605-1856. Read about these records. The various ships are listed alphabetically, following the order in Catalogue of East India Company Ships' Journals and Logs 1600-1834 by Anthony J.Farrington (London, 1999). Although the records continue until 1856, they effectively end at 1834.

If you know the ship your research interest travelled on (for instance, from Arrival and Departure lists in directories), these journals may provide interesting information. In the daily deck log of occurrences onboard, alongside more minimal entries recording weather and landmarks, one can find details of births and deaths at sea (and baptisms and burials), offences and punishments for sailors and other interesting genealogical tidbits. A passenger list is often included for each journey.

Browse the records by ship name:

• A-Dav
• Daw-Han
• Hap-Mas
• Mat-Sat
• Sc-Z plus extra ships names from 1834.

If you cannot find the ship’s name you are looking for, confirm the name from the Ships Search from Andrea Cordani’s "East India Company Ships" . As an example, the ship whose name was thought to be the 'Lushington' was in fact the 'Sir Stephen Lushington', to be found in the lists above under S (not L).

Also see

• The British Library page, section Obtaining Copies of Records
• Passenger lists

FIBIS resources

• Rockingham Ships' Log 1796 List of soldiers from 12th Regiment of Foot embarking for India aboard the Indiaman Rockingham.

External links

• This India List post in a PS refers to the ships' records as a 'treasure trove'. The author of the post found out the name of a child travelling, and some of the circumstances, [on an earlier voyage] of the death of the child’s father.
• Terrible conditions described in a Letter home from a soldier’s wife on a voyage to India 1859 Old-merseytimes.co.uk Details conditions on the ship Acrington which resulted in the murder of the captain.