How to use the Mercantile Navy List
Limitations
Mercantile Navy List includes only British ships. Ships
owned in most empire or later Commonwealth countries are included,
but coverage of smaller ships owned in the Indian subcontinent is
poor. A difficulty when tracing a vessel`s history
in Mercantile Navy List is following the ship when
its name changes, or it is removed from the list because it is
scrapped, wrecked or sold abroad. `Posted [definition]` editions
of Lloyd`s Register of Ships give enough details of
such changes to follow the trail, but with Mercantile Navy
List it is necessary to search the monthly supplements, copies
of which are only in a few libraries and only for years since 1947.
For this reason, it is easier to trace a ship`s history
through Lloyd`s Register of Ships and turn
to Mercantile Navy List if this fails. Mercantile Navy List will usually give only one or two
owners of a particular ship, whereas shares in that ship may be
owned by up to 64 individuals (and sometimes more). The way to
trace all these owners is through the Customsregisters.
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