Since the 18th century, shipping newspapers have published weekly and later daily lists of arrivals and sailings for British ports. From the 1870s, movements of ocean-going ships and details of casualties also appear.

Lloyd`s List was first published in the 1740s and continues today, although details of shipping movements have been dropped in recent years. An index to Lloyd`s List for the years 1838 to 1927 in the Guildhall Library [address] makes it relatively easy to trace the movements of a given ship. Volunteers at the Guidlhall Library are working on an index for the years 1763-1837 to cover casualties and news but not movements. Appearing in 1838, Shipping and Mercantile Gazette also published movements, and may have had better coverage than Lloyd`s List. The two newspapers amalgamated in 1884.

The Guildhall Library has a set of Voyage record cards covering the years 1927 to c1975, which list the voyages made by each ocean-going ship. The cards act as an index to Lloyd`s List. Users are required to give the library 48 hours` notice to look at them.

Lloyd`s Shipping Index, published from 1880 to date, reprints much of the information on movements from Lloyd`s List. It is in one or more alphabetical sequences which simplifies searching for a given vessel.

Several libraries have partial sets of Lloyd`s List, Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, and Lloyd`s Shipping Index. The most extensive holdings are probably those of the British Library`s newspaper library [address] and the Guildhall Library.