Merchant Navy Records: Tracing British Merchant Seamen

British Merchant Navy records are the papers the state kept on civilian seafarers and on the ships they sailed in: registers of seamen, crew lists and agreements, officers’ certificates, medal records and returns of deaths at sea. Most of the national series are at The National Archives in Kew, with large parts held at Southampton Archives, the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich and the Maritime History Archive in Newfoundland.

There is no single index for every seaman. What you can find depends on the period: central registers exist for 1835 to 1857 and again from late 1918 to 1972, while for the years in between you work mainly from crew lists. This guide sets out what survives for each period, where to search free and by subscription, and how to move from a name to a ship and back again.

Which records exist for which years

Start by placing your seaman in one of the periods below. The gaps matter more than the holdings: The National Archives states that between 1858 and the First World War the Merchant Navy did not keep registers of its seamen, and that the central register entries for 1913 to 1917 and most of 1918 were destroyed.

Period	Main records	Where to look
1835-1857	Registers of seamen BT 120 (1835-1836), BT 112 with index BT 119 (1835-1844), register of seamen’s tickets BT 113 with index BT 114 (1845-1854), BT 116 (1853-1857)	Findmypast (£); free at Kew
1858-1913	No central register. Crew lists and agreements (BT 99), apprentice indentures, officers’ certificates	The National Archives, Maritime History Archive, National Maritime Museum, local record offices
1918-1941	Fourth Register or Central Index Register: CR 1, CR 2 and CR 10 cards (BT 348, BT 349, BT 350, BT 364)	Findmypast (£); originals at Southampton Archives
1941-1972	Fifth Register or Central Register of Seamen: docket books (BT 382) and seamen’s pouches (BT 372, BT 390, BT 391)	The National Archives at Kew only
After 1972	Not held by The National Archives	Maritime and Coastguard Agency

Registers of seamen, 1835 to 1857

Central registration of seamen began in 1835. Four series survive: the register of seamen series I (BT 120, 1835-1836), series II (BT 112, 1835-1844, with a name index in BT 119), the register of seamen’s tickets (BT 113, 1845-1854, with a surname index in BT 114) and series III (BT 116, 1853-1857). All four are digitised and searchable on Findmypast, which charges for access; you can use them free on the computers at Kew.

The gap years and the crew lists

For 1858 to 1913, and for any period where a register is missing, crew lists are the main source. A crew list and agreement was drawn up for a ship’s voyages, signed by each man who joined. The National Archives describes them as recording a man’s age, place of birth, job on the ship, date and place of joining and leaving, and the reason for leaving, such as discharge or drowning.

Where the crew lists are now

After 1861 the lists were split between several archives, so it pays to know who holds which years:

Early muster books and crew lists 1747-1856 are in BT 98 at The National Archives.
For 1861-1938 and 1951-1994 The National Archives kept a 10% sample in BT 99 and related series; it holds all surviving lists for 1939-1950.
The Maritime History Archive at Memorial University of Newfoundland holds about 70% of surviving lists for 1863-1938 and 1951-1976, and has an online crew list index by ship’s official number.
The National Maritime Museum holds 10% for 1861-1938 and 1951-1976, and hosts a free searchable transcription of the 1915 lists.
Local record offices hold some lists for ships registered at their ports, mainly 1863-1913.

From 1855 you need the ship’s official number to find a crew list. The free Crew List Index Project (CLIP) website helps you turn a ship’s name into its official number and shows which archive holds lists for that vessel.

Seamen’s cards and pouches, 1918 to 1972

The Fourth Register, 1918-1941

The Central Index Register was begun in 1913 and kept until 1941, but only entries from the last two months of 1918 onwards survive. It consists of three kinds of card: CR 1 (an alphabetical index card), CR 2 (a numerical card listing ships) and CR 10 (a card with a photograph, created when identity cards were issued to seamen). According to The National Archives, the cards between them can give year and place of birth, rank or rating, a physical description, next of kin, the ship’s official number and the seaman’s discharge (Dis. A.) number. The cards are indexed on Findmypast (£); the originals are at Southampton Archives.

The Fifth Register, 1941-1972

From 1941 the Central Register of Seamen used docket books (CRS 10 forms, series BT 382) and personal files known as pouches (BT 372, BT 390 and BT 391). Docket books usually record place and date of birth, discharge book number, nationality or country of origin, rank and a list of ships with dates of joining and discharge. Pouches may hold a photograph and a British Seamen’s Identity Card, but only about half survive. These records are not online: you view them at Kew or use The National Archives’ paid search service. The National Archives notes that access to full details of seamen born less than 100 years ago may be restricted.

Officers, apprentices and medals

Masters and mates

Certificates of competency and service for masters and mates, 1845-1921, are in BT 122 to BT 128, indexed in BT 127. Each entry gives the officer’s place and year of birth, certificate number and grade, and date and place of certification, with voyage details up to 1888. They are not online at The National Archives; the National Maritime Museum’s master and mate certificate records for 1850-1927 are on Ancestry (£). Lloyd’s Captains’ Registers, 1851-1947, add year of birth and later service and can be seen on microfilm at Kew.

Apprentices

Indexes of apprentice indentures, 1824-1910 (BT 150), are on Ancestry, with the original indentures in BT 151 and BT 152. An indenture names the boy, his age and the master he was bound to, which is useful for the gap years.

Campaign medals

First World War medal cards for merchant seamen (BT 351) cover the British War Medal and the Mercantile Marine Medal. Second World War medals are recorded in BT 395, which you can search by name in The National Archives’ Discovery catalogue. Medals had to be claimed, so a missing entry does not mean a man did not serve. When a BT 395 entry exists it usually gives the discharge book number and often the date and place of birth, which leads straight into the Fifth Register.

Deaths at sea and war memorials

Deaths of seamen on British ships were reported to the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen. Registers of births, marriages and deaths at sea for 1854-1891 are in BT 158 to BT 160, and the registers of deceased seamen in BT 334 include deaths in both world wars, with nationality or birthplace. These are indexed on Findmypast (£) in its maritime deaths and overseas collections. The General Register Office also keeps Marine death and birth registers from 1837, listed in its overseas indexes; when you order a certificate on the GRO website, choose an event registered outside the United Kingdom.

For wartime losses, search the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s free Find War Dead database. Merchant seafarers of both world wars who have no grave but the sea are named on the Tower Hill Memorial in London, which CWGC maintains. A CWGC entry usually gives the ship, the date of loss and often next of kin.

A step-by-step search

Collect what the family already knows: a ship’s name, a discharge book, a photograph in uniform, or an occupation of seaman, mariner or fireman in the census or on a certificate. See our guides to census records and the 1939 Register and birth, marriage and death certificates.
Place the man in a period and search the matching register: 1835-1857, 1918-1941 or 1941-1972.
Take the ships and dates from the register, find each ship’s official number through CLIP, then find out which archive holds that year’s crew list.
Check BT 395 or BT 351 for medals and CWGC for wartime deaths.
Read the birthplace and nationality in every record and compare them: seamen often gave slightly different ages and places.

An illustrative example: a family knows only that a grandfather “went to sea in the 1920s”. His CR 10 card gives a year and place of birth, a photograph and a discharge number. The CR 2 card lists ships by official number. A crew list for one of those voyages, found through CLIP at the Maritime History Archive, confirms his age and home address when he signed on. Each record repeats one fact from the last, which is how you know you have the right man.

Two common pitfalls: many men of the same name served at once, so always link records by discharge number rather than name alone; and Royal Navy service is a different set of records, covered in our guide to UK military service records.

Polish-born seamen and the Polish merchant fleet

Seamen born in the Polish lands appear on British ships from the nineteenth century onwards. Before 1918 Poland was divided, so a man born in Gdańsk, Szczecin or Warsaw may be entered as German, Prussian, Russian or Austrian rather than Polish, and his birthplace may be written in German or spelt by ear. Compare every spelling of the surname: a clerk might write a name several ways in one career. Our guide to anglicised Polish surnames shows the usual patterns.

In the Fifth Register, docket books are filed in eight parts by nationality or origin. The National Archives advises looking in both Part 1 and Part 2 for seamen of European origin, so a Pole may be in either. A foreign seaman who settled in Britain may also have been naturalised, which produces a Home Office file with more family detail; see naturalisation records of Poles in the UK and our guide to UK immigration records.

Polish ships in British ports, 1939-1945

In late August 1939 Polish merchant ships were ordered to make for Allied or neutral ports, and most of the fleet escaped. The Polish government in exile placed all Polish ships under its control, managed through a Transport Committee at the Polish Consulate General in London, and the fleet then sailed from British ports alongside Allied shipping. The large liners Batory, Sobieski, Chrobry and Piłsudski served as troopships. Men who served on Polish-flag merchant ships were employed under Polish administration, so their papers are not in the British seamen’s registers; the records of the government in exile are at the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, and the Second World War shipping movement cards (BT 389) at The National Archives record the movements of Allied as well as British ships.

If your relative served in the Polish Navy rather than the merchant fleet, the records are different again: see our guide to Polish Navy records of the Second World War.

The next Polish record

The most useful fact a British maritime record gives is a place and year of birth. Once you have them, the next step is the Polish birth or baptism entry for that parish or registry district, which names the parents and often the grandparents. Our guide to finding a birth entry in Poland explains how to identify the right parish and search its registers.