How to use Lloyd's Register of Ships
Making a Search
To search for details of a ship in Lloyd`s Register of
Ships its name or former name is usually needed. If the name
is not known, but the owner`s name or its builder is, it might just
be possible to identify the ship, especially if other details are
known. This is because editions from 1876 included a list of ships
by owner, and editions from 1886 a list of ships by builders. There are no indexes of Lloyd`s Register of Ships
that show in which years a given ship is listed. So, if the years
it was in existence are unknown, it is a matter of searching
through editions, say at five yearly intervals, to find the ship. A
list of former names has appeared since 1886, and this is a useful
place to look for a ship`s name. Once a ship has been found in Lloyd`s Register of
Ships, check the building date and look back through previous
editions to find any significant changes such as owner, flag or
name. A ship usually remained in Lloyd`s Register of
Ships until it was lost or scrapped, so completing its history
involves tracing it through later editions. This is best done with
` posted [definition] `
editions, which show whether a ship changed its name and owner, and
give brief details when it is lost or broken up. Once a ship has
changed name, subsequent details appear under its new name. If using an unposted register, you will that find the ship may
drop out between two editions. The supplement to that
year`s Lloyd`s Register of Ships, if available, will
show what happened to the ship. Alternatively, check the list of
former names in a subsequent edition to find if it has been
renamed. If it is not listed, the ship has probably been lost or
broken up. The way the volumes are organised has changed a number of times
over the long history of Lloyd`s Register of Ships.
The information almost always continues from one edition to the
next, but may suddenly appear in a different volume or section. For
instance, sailing vessels and steamships began to be listed
separately in 1890. A major change came in 1932 when steam and
motor vessels over and under 300 gross tons were separated, sailing
ships continuing in their own list. From 1947 all vessels were put
in one list, published in two volumes. In 1980, three volumes
became necessary, and since 1985 these have included information
previously appearing in other sections, including the useful `list
of former names`.
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