In this installment of maritime history events, we look at oil spills, new technology, and Pacific exploration. If you’ve got an event that you think should be included, let us know in a comment below, or in an email to comments@shipindex.org.
March 16: In 1978, the oil tanker Amoco Cadiz (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) ran aground off the coast of Brittany, France, causing the largest spill of its kind up to that point in time. The Amoco Cadiz was built in Spain, in 1973-75, so it was a fairly new ship when it was forced to put the rudder hard to port to avoid another ship during a gale, and the rudder got stuck. Despite attempts to be pulled to safety by a tug, and dropping anchors, Amoco Cadiz eventually ended up on rocks that pierced the hull and caused the release of all oil and fuel on board. Like the Torrey Canyon disaster almost exactly eleven years earlier, the wreck was bombed to sink the ship and limit additional damage.
March 18: In 1967, the SS Torrey Canyon (Wikipedia, ShipIndex), a Suezmax oil tanker built at Newport News Shipyard in 1959 (then enlarged in Japan several years later), ran aground off the coast of Cornwall, England, spilling much of its cargo. The British government decided to attempt to burn off the spilt oil, to minimize its impact, and therefore bombed the spill site with large bombs, jet fuel, rockets, and napalm, with limited success.
March 20: The USS Langley (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) was commissioned in 1922, as America’s first aircraft carrier, just 18 years after Orville and Wilbur Wright’s first flight in North Carolina. Jupiter, a collier, or coal-carrying ship, was launched in 1912, decommissioned in 1920, and then recommissioned as Langley (CV-1) two years later, with a wooden deck for airplane movements. Langley also saw service in World War II, but was attacked by a group of Japanese bombers and was damaged so much that the ship needed to be scuttled.
March 22: The Tonquin (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) arrived at the Columbia River on the US West Coast in 1811. While getting over the treacherous Columbia Bar led to the loss of eight sailors, the crew was able to make it to shore, and soon founded a trading post that would become Astoria, Oregon. Tonquin continued north to trade with native fur trappers. A battle in June 1811, between Tonquin sailors and native Tla-o-qui-aht traders in Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia, led to the deaths of all but four sailors. One of the four, who was badly wounded, remained on board ship while the other three escaped, and then lit a fuse that detonated the ship’s powder magazine, killing as many as 100 natives and destroying the ship. The other three sailors were eventually captured and killed; a native Quinalt man who had served as a translator was the only survivor, and the only one to make it back to Fort Astoria to tell the tale.
For more about these ships, check out ShipIndex.org. And let us know if you have events that you think we should include!
In this installment of maritime history events, we travel all around the world. If you’ve got an event that you think should be included, let us know in a comment below, or in an email to comments@shipindex.org.
March 9-10: The submarine USS Kete (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) engaged with three Japanese vessels while gathering weather data in preparation for the invasion of Okinawa, in 1945. Kete was built in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and entered service in 1944. Kete was lost later in the month, but no information is known around what caused her loss. In 1995, deep-sea divers may have spotted Kete, but they were unable to confirm the identity of the submarine they found, and after their Remotely Operated Vessel was lost in 1997, they were unable to return to the site.
March 11: On board Balclutha (Wikipedia, ShipIndex, now at the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park), in 1899, the Captain’s wife, Alice Durkee, gave birth to their daughter while at sea. The child was named Inda Frances, because she was born on the Indian Ocean, while headed for San Francisco. (source)
March 13: In 1808, HMS Emerald, a 36-gun frigate (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) with a long history in the British navy, took a large French schooner, Apropos (ShipIndex) in Viveiro harbor (on the coast in the northwest corner of Spain, in Galicia). The crew on Apropos had run their ship on shore to escape the British, but they were unable to do so, and eventually set the ship on fire, after having run off her crew. Emerald lost nine men, plus had 16 wounded, in the action.
March 14: On this day in 1790, William Bligh returned to Great Britain, after the mutiny against him on board HMS Bounty (Wikipedia, ShipIndex), the year before. Fletcher Christian, Bligh’s good friend and a master’s mate on Bounty, put Bligh and several other crew in a small boat, which Bligh successfully navigated on a 6700km open ocean voyage to Coupang, in Timor. Bligh eventually returned to Great Britain, and continued his naval career for another 25 years. Below is a photo I took of Capt Bligh’s grave and memorial, in what is now London’s Garden Museum, on Lambeth Palace Road, on a visit in 2023.
For more about these ships, check out ShipIndex.org. And let us know if you have events that you think we should include!
Today we are starting a new feature that we think will help highlight the importance of maritime history in World history: a list of several central and important events that happened this week, at some time in the past. Most posts will focus on an event or a ship or the ships involved in a specific event. If you have an event you think we should include, please let us know, in a comment below or in an email to comments@shipindex.org. Enjoy!
We’re kicking off this feature with one of the most important-but-inconsequential-at-the-moment events in maritime history: the Battle of Hampton Roads, between the CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor. While the battle between the two ships had little immediate impact, the importance of the first battle between two ironclads cannot be understated. Read more about it, and other events, below.
March 3: The first US Naval ship built on the West Coast, USS Saginaw (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) was launched on this day in 1859. Given the name Toucey at launch, the ship was renamed Saginaw a few months later. Saginaw sailed from San Francisco Bay a year later, on March 8, 1860, and served in the western Pacific, primarily in China and Japan, before returning to the US West Coast during the Civil War. In the late 1860s, Saginaw charted and explored the Alaskan coast, after it was purchased from Russia. Saginaw was lost in 1870, while visiting Kure Atoll, near Midway, to see if any shipwrecked sailors were on the atoll. All of Saginaw’s crew got to the atoll, and a small group sailed in a small boat for Honolulu, but only one of the sailors survived. The remaining crew were rescued in January 1871. The Saginaw wreck was discovered in 2003.
March 6: In 1987, the ro-ro ferry Herald of Free Enterprise (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) sank minutes after leaving its dock in Zeebrugge, in Belgium. Investigators determined that the car deck doors had been left open, causing the ferry to sink quickly. Of 539 on board, 193 passengers and crew died.
March 8-9: The Battle of Hampton Roads took place in 1862; it was one of the pivotal battles in naval history, as it was the first battle between two ironclad ships, and presaged the future of naval warfare.The hull of the former USS Merrimack (Wikipedia, ShipIndex), which the Union forces had burned to the waterline, was converted to an ironclad steamer, renamed CSS Virginia (Wikipedia, ShipIndex). On March 8, 1862, Virginia engaged and rammed the USS Cumberland (WP, ShipIndex), in the waters off Hampton Roads, Virginia. USS Congress (wp, ShipIndex), having seen the ramifications of the ramming, grounded in shallow water. After battling with Virginia, Congress eventually surrendered. Overnight, USS Monitor (Wikipedia, ShipIndex) arrived, and Monitor and Virginia battled each other the next morning, as the first naval battle between ironclads got underway. The battle was, however, not decisive, with neither vessel gaining the upper hand.
After the battle Virginia remained blockaded in Hampton Roads by multiple US Navy vessels, eventually including several additional ironclads. In May 1862, Confederate forces reluctantly sank Virginia to avoid it being taken into Union hands. Six months later, Monitor was directed to join the blockade of Charleston, but sank in a late December storm, with the loss of sixteen sailors, off Cape Hatteras. Monitor’s wreck was discovered in 1973; since 1998 various portions of the ship, including Monitor’s gun turret have been recovered. Many parts of the vessel are now on display at the USS Monitor Center at the Mariners’ Museum, in Newport News, Virginia.
For more about these ships, check out ShipIndex.org. And let us know if you have events that you think we should include!
I updated the Merchant Vessels of the United States file again this week. This is a file provided by the US Coast Guard describing some 387,000 vessels registered in the United States which have a valid Certificate of Documentation, from the National Vessel Documentation Center, based in Falling Waters, WV. The file lists all boats that receive federal documentation – usually those that will travel between states or outside of the United States, or are about 20+ feet or longer. This is different from state titling, which usually happens for smaller boats with a motor. Of course, the smaller non-powered ones, like rowboats and canoes, usually don’t require any titling or documentation at all.
Anyway, MVUS includes all US-flagged commercial vessels, and a lot of large personal vessels, as well. It’s the best file for finding the most popular vessel names in the US, which is of course a popular topic at a guide to vessel names!
Most commercial vessels have unique names that are just a combination of letters and numbers, like “Art 360”, “Art 361”, “Art 362”, “Art 363”, or “T13909”, “T13911”, “T13912”, etc. Most of these are barges, and to be honest, they’re not that interesting. Of the 209,037 unique ship names (ending with “Zzzz!”) and 386,377 unique vessels in MVUS, 175,049 appear only once. Some of those are quite interesting, and we will investigate a few in the future. For now, here’s how the instance of ship names breaks out:
# of instances
# of names
# of vessels
% of vessels
1
175,051
175,051
45.3%
2
15,626
31,252
8.1%
3
5,724
17,172
4.4%
4-10
8,951
51,470
13.3%
11-99
3,536
87,766
22.7%
100+
149
23,800
6.1%
Over 31,000 ships have a single matching partner with the same name somewhere in the country, and nearly 150 have at least 100 different ships with the same name.
Note: this analysis is pretty basic; I didn’t combine vessel names that are very similar, but not the same, like “Ain’t Mis Behavin”, “Ain’t Misbehavin”, “Ain’t Misbehavin’”, and “Ain’t Miss Behavin” – I’m not sure which name I’d combine these under, for instance! Actually, I did correct one or two. There was one listed as “0hana” and I felt pretty sure they meant “Ohana”, and it was a mistake in the Coast Guard’s National Vessel Documentation Center. I could be wrong, though. (I did note the former name in my correction, so if I was wrong, a person can still find that ship name.)
Some people name their vessel “USS Enterprise” or “USS Git-It-Done” or “HMS Michele”. I kept those initial parts in here because, unlike with the actual naval ships, it is a part of the name, for better or (most definitely) for worse. One feature of ShipIndex.org is that when you do search for, say, “HMS Indefatigable” (definitely one of the best ship names ever), the database assumes that you want to search for “Indefatigable”, as that will return the best results. It still gives you the option of searching with the “HMS”, however – which will be useful for those searching for “USS Michele”.
A lot of owners put “The” at the start of their ship name. There are a dozen ships named “The 19th Hole”, along with 27 named “19th Hole”. Ugh. On the one hand, I very much dislike putting “The” at the front of a ship name! On the other hand, my brother and a friend built a rowboat for our dad, and I carved a nameboard for it, and that boat had the name “The Prelude”, with the article. (See a picture of it, below.) But, see, our dad had written a book about William Wordsworth and his poems, one of which was named “The Prelude”, and we also thought this might be a precursor to a larger boat.
An acceptable use of an article in a ship’s name, according to me.
Anyway, which are the most popular vessel names in the US, in 2025? Here’s a list of the top 50 vessel names in MVUS, with the number of boats with that name, as of February 2025:
Ship Name
Number of instances
Serenity
538
Freedom
519
Andiamo
390
Liberty
370
Osprey
329
Second Wind
305
Pura Vida
274
Grace
271
Ohana
264
Island Time
262
Why Knot
253
Happy Ours
250
Relentless
250
Serendipity
241
Seas the Day
240
Escape
239
Legacy
236
Island Girl
232
Odyssey
231
Destiny
227
Blue Moon
222
Knot on Call
222
Carpe Diem
221
Orion
221
Calypso
219
Aurora
213
Spirit
209
Endless Summer
205
Patriot
205
Gratitude
201
Voyager
195
Phoenix
194
At Last
191
Tranquility
188
Morning Star
187
Dream Catcher
183
Pegasus
182
Halcyon
180
Valhalla
178
Southern Cross
177
Bella Vita
176
Liquid Asset
176
Zephyr
176
Harmony
174
Escapade
172
About Time
171
Encore
171
Journey
170
Cool Change
169
Dragonfly
168
In a week or two I’ll write a post that looks at the changes in the most popular vessel names, over the past five years. I hope you found this as interesting as I did!
ShipIndex opened for business in early 2009. The database had existed since about 2000 in a different online location, and then moved to the ShipIndex.org URL in 2002. Originally, I had no plans for turning it into a business at the time, so I never bothered to get the ShipIndex.com domain name. Oops.
But when we did start the company, we needed to set reasonable prices for database access. Everything that had originally been free remained free, but we were expanding quickly – the free database still has over 150,000 citations, but the subscription database has now grown to over 3.5 million citations! We set what we thought were reasonable prices for accessing the database, and moved on to the next issue. Now, 14 years later, we think it might be time to review those prices. All of our costs have gone up in the past 14 years, and ShipIndex was never profitable to begin with. So, it’s time to change.
At the end of June 2024, our individual subscription prices will increase. The changes will look like this:
Subscription Type
Current Price
New Price
Two weeks access
$6
$7.50
Three months access
$22
$26
Six months access
$35
$43
One year access
$65
$80
Monthly recurring access
$8
$10
But if you subscribe now, you can lock in the current price levels. If you decide to establish a monthly subscription, for example, the cost will forever be based on the price when you start – if you start a monthly subscription today it will stay at $8/month, and it will not increase when the standard pricing changes.
You can also purchase one year gift certificates (at bottom of page) now, to use whenever you like, for access to the full database from the point when you redeem the certificate, either for yourself or as a gift.
Price increases aren’t much fun, but it’s been 14 years since we’ve made changes, and now certainly seems to be the time to do it. Feel free to comment below if you have anything to add.
Did you, like me, receive a curious set of porcelain knick-knacks that your mom picked up at a charity shop because they had pictures of ships on them? No? OK, well, maybe your mom is different from mine.
But I did get the following three items from my mom, and as you can see by the stickers on the bottom, she found the set for £2, presumably at a charity shop in London or in Wiltshire. Knowing my love of ships, she took them to Seattle, gave them to me as a small Christmas gift, and then I brought them home with me to the Finger Lakes region of New York. Now that they’re here, what could I discover about them?
First, the ship(s). As you can see, the images are of several different ships. The taller piece (perhaps for holdings cigarettes?) has a different image on each side. One image matches the image on the ridged piece, labelled on the bottom as “ARACAN 1854” and displaying a three-masted bark. The back side of the taller piece has a somewhat shorter vessel, with full topsails rather than split topsails. The other piece has an image of a four-masted bark, with no name on the back. Also, all three pieces have the name “Thos. & Jno. Brocklebank Ltd”, a 19th and 20th century shipping line that was acquired by the Anchor Line in 1912, according to Wikipedia.
In the image below, of the two sides of the taller piece, the image on the left, with the flags blowing aft, has got split topsails, and matches the image of the Aracan from the ridged piece. The image on the right shows much larger single topsails on each mast, on what appears to be a different vessel. I guess I don’t know what ship it represents!
To learn more about the one named ship, I went to ShipIndex.org, as one does, and searched for “Aracan”. In the subscription database I found 32 citations from six resources. Some citations have very little information about the specific vessel, like the top two, while others, like the bottom two, have at least a bit more:
The entries from the various shipping registries, as in the bottom viewable entry, are more useful, and from them I can see that Aracan was a bark, and was built in Sundsvall, Sweden, in 1876. The ship’s captain at this time was Capt H.F. Hedberg.
Other entries, though, such as this one from 1875, before the ship was launched, show a different ship — one that was built in 1854, in Whitehaven, England, and registered in Liverpool.
So I can see now that there are at least two ships named Aracan, built nearly 20 years apart.
Given our ability to differentiate between ships of the same name, this is a great opportunity to do just that. I use Wikidata Q-identifiers because I believe they are the best, most shared, most common, and most open, tool for implementing and using Linked Data. So I search Wikipedia for an entry about ships named Aracan, and I find nothing there. That’s not a complete surprise, but it’s a bit disappointing. I check Wikidata for any records of ships named Aracan there, and again come up short:
I can create Wikidata entries for the two Aracans that I now know about, but I really don’t have a lot of information about them. In the grand scheme of things, that really is the correct thing to do – it contributes to the greater good and makes it easier for others to learn more about these specific ships. But I don’t have much detail to add about either ship, and I have a checkered history in creating and editing records in Wikidata and Wikipedia, so I shy away from it, at times. I could perhaps use the image of the 1854 Aracan from this porcelain, but a quick search online indicates that the pieces probably date from the late 1950s so I don’t feel that I can say with certainty (which Wikidata expects) that the image is copyright-free. Perhaps, in the future, I’ll create records for these ships. ShipIndex, though, has the ability to quickly create our own identifiers, which we can use until we find that Wikidata Q-identifiers exist. So, for now, that’s what I’ll do.
I’ll then associate the citations that are clearly about either the 1854 or the 1876 vessels, with those new identifiers, and now the page looks a bit different, with a record of two different ships sharing the same name, and with citations about each one combined together.
If or when Q-identifiers are created for these ships, and if or when images are added to those entries, these ‘cards’ for the two different ships with the same name will add and incorporate those images into this page.
You may not have received a holiday gift with a ship on it, but if you did, see if you can find it it ShipIndex.org!
This blog post offers links and notes related to my live webinar presentation for ShipIndex.org users on October 18, 2023. It will be updated slightly after the presentation, to reflect any changes or discussions during the presentation. It’s not intended to represent all of the comments shared during the presentation, but instead to be a place where links and notes are stored, for the benefit of attendees.
Section 1. Using vessel research in genealogy – how it can be applied, and how it can benefit genealogy research
Important: Know what a resource can do: ShipIndex cannot really help you find information about a person, and the large genealogy databases cannot really help you find information about vessels. Use the right tool for the job!
Monongahela, the last tall ship to leave Seattle’s Lake Union before the completion of the Aurora Bridge. Photo hosted by Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society.
Vessel research can help you find an image of the ship an ancestor emigrated on, or perhaps a picture of the ship that grandparents took their honeymoon on.
For ancestors who served in the military, vessel research can help you learn about their experiences: if you know what ship they were on, and when, then researching the history of the ship will help you learn more about their experiences.
Vessel research might help you find a diary or logbook kept by someone who was on the voyage that your ancestor was on.
Section 2. Using vessel research in maritime and other history – not just genealogy
Research in local history can help learn a great deal from maritime history – researching the vessel, rather than the people on it. Perhaps you’re researching a schooner that’s been in the community for 70 years, but must be removed – such as Equator, in Everett, Washington.
Screenshot from Everett, Washington, HeraldNet.
Or you want to research the history of a vessel whose wreck was just discovered in Lake Superior:
Section 3. Using ShipIndex.org as a tool, among many, for doing this work
Introduction to ShipIndex, what it can and cannot do; comparing the free database and the subscription database.
‘Cards’ are used to differentiate between ships with the same name, and to bring together different names for the same ships. How does this work?
Some important details on searching within ShipIndex:
Remember that if you have a short ship name, like “James” or “Wasp”, there’s likely a whole set of other ship names to explore. The search returned an ‘exact match’, and if you click on “See other matching ships”, you’ll see many more with the ship name in it.
If that’s overwhelming, you can narrow down your search to only the ship name field, by searching "@ship_name james“, for example.
To limit a search to names that start with a term, use the carat (“^”) character, for example: “^james“
Section 4. Other options for vessel search, beyond ShipIndex
There are many ship registers available; not all are included in ShipIndex.org, since acquiring a list of their content can be quite difficult (or impossible!). Some examples:
Section 5. Ways of searching the free web most effectively
When using Google, try the “AROUND” function, with the vessel type – so, for example, “constellation AROUND(5) sloop-of-war” – very different results from just “constellation“!
Use citations from Wikipedia to discover great sources about those ships that have Wikipedia entries.
Section 6. Finding the books and journals you’ve identified
Using WorldCat.org to locate libraries that own a particular title – but consider the many challenges that come with searching WorldCat. It is not particularly reliable anymore. It’s very difficult to determine what library has a particular journal (ie, magazine) that you want. Become friends with your interlibrary borrowing partners! (And be sure to support them!)
Searching for manuscripts: During the session, I discussed the challenges of finding manuscript resources that are mentioned in WorldCat but list no location. This post from 2014 shows how to find the actual location of the manuscript collection, by searching the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections, or “NUCMC” (pronounced “nuck-muck”). The WorldCat interface has changed in the past ten years, but the underlying content, and issues around it, remains. I don’t know why WorldCat doesn’t show the location of these items, but it doesn’t. The post explains how to get around that.
Section 7. Searching for historical newspapers online – a great tool for learning more
The Ohio Memory project includes lists of, and links to, many Ohio newspapers — most 19th century ones come from the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America project.
If searching is possible, certainly give it a try, but many interfaces do not have good search functionality. Conversion to text can also be very bad, which limits searching.
For an amazing interface and project, see the remarkable California Digital Newspaper Collection. I’ve become slightly obsessed with correcting content here, and I’ve discovered that the San Francisco Call has numerous listings of vessel arrivals and departures across the West Coast.
Section 8. Using University Libraries to do further research (APPROACH #1 – with database access)
Many – but definitely not all – academic libraries will allow visitors to enter and use their databases. When librarians sign contracts to provide access to these expensive databases, we try to ensure access for “walk-in” users – for anyone who comes in to the library. This will especially be true for public academic libraries. If you have an academic library near you, ask if you can use most of its resources as a walk-in user.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers is a valuable resource when searching newspapers. Others include Accessible Archives, NewsBank, and more. In ProQuest, try using “NEAR” function: so, “monongahela NEAR oiler“. (Use NEAR/#, where # is the number of words. NEAR without a number defaults to 4 words.)
Section 9. Using University Libraries without access, from afar – it’s still doable, sort of! (APPROACH #2 – without database access)
“Discovery Layers” are a tool for searching much (but definitely not all) subscription databases, all at once. Content from many subscription databases is pre-indexed and users can search a lot of databases all at once, similar to using Google.
There are two main companies who offer Discovery Layers: ProQuest (in their Ex Libris division) and EBSCO. Each discovery layer does NOT include the content from its competitor. Since ProQuest has superior coverage of historical newspapers, find a major research library who uses the Ex Libris CDI and also allows you to search their discovery layer without logging in. This site shows which of the largest US & Canadian libraries use which discovery layer. Use a library in the “Ex Libris CDI” section because they will include ProQuest databases in the discovery layer. Select a university, then click on “Library Web Site,” and find the place to start searching.
Not all libraries will allow you to search without logging in, so if one doesn’t, try another. Yale will, for example, so they’re a great place to start. In the Yale interface, you can even narrow it down to just newspaper articles. BUT BUT BUT BUT — and this is important — you CANNOT get to the article itself, at least not here! Discovering that the article exists, however, might be incredibly valuable.
For more information about historical newspapers in a certain state or city, consider looking at the LibGuides about newspapers in the state or province at the largest university library, or the state library, for that state or province. For example, OSU, or State Library of Ohio.
Section 10. Searching for journals and newspapers
What do you do if you’ve found an article, or a journal, that isn’t available at the library near you? Your best option is probably interlibrary borrowing, but there are other options, as well.
Section 11. Conclusion.
I believe that vessel research can improve your family history, and the story you tell in your genealogy. Some of it might just be “adding leaves to the tree” — finding images of ships that were tangentially connected with your family story, and look good in a document or book you create. Others will directly inform your understanding of your ancestors’ lives, such as by learning about the battles those on board a warship (including your ancestor) during World War II, or during another conflict.
I hope that learning a bit about some ways of doing some of this research might be useful and helpful to you.
This blog post offers links and notes related to my live webinar presentation to the Ohio Genealogical Society on July 11, 2023. It will be updated slightly after the presentation, to reflect any changes or discussions during the presentation. It’s not intended to represent all of the comments shared during the presentation, but instead to be a place where links and notes are stored, for the benefit of attendees.
Section 1. Using vessel research in genealogy – how it can be applied, and how it can benefit genealogy research
Important: Know what a resource can do: ShipIndex cannot really help you find information about a person, and the large genealogy databases cannot really help you find information about vessels. Use the right tool for the job!
SS Imperator, also Berengaria. Source: Library of Congress, via Wikipedia
Vessel research can help you find an image of the ship an ancestor emigrated on, or perhaps a picture of the ship that grandparents took their honeymoon on.
For ancestors who served in the military, vessel research can help you learn about their experiences: if you know what ship they were on, and when, then researching the history of the ship will help you learn more about their experiences.
Vessel research might help you find a diary or logbook kept by someone who was on the voyage that your ancestor was on.
Section 2. Using vessel research in maritime and other history – not just genealogy
Research in local history can help learn a great deal from maritime history – researching the vessel, rather than the people on it. Perhaps you have a mid-19th century panorama of the city and you’d like to research some of the boats you see on it?
Portion of 1848 “Panorama of Progress,” by Charles Fontayne and William S. Porter, held at Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library.
Or you’re researching a schooner that’s been in the community for 70 years, but must be removed – such as Equator, in Everett, Washington.
Screenshot from Everett, Washington, HeraldNet.
Section 3. Using ShipIndex.org as a tool, among many, for doing this work
Introduction to ShipIndex, what it can and cannot do; comparing the free database and the subscription database.
‘Cards’ are used to differentiate between ships with the same name, and to bring together different names for the same ships. How does this work?
Options for doing advanced searching – see search features page for information about options on doing more advanced searching.
Section 4. Other options for vessel search, beyond ShipIndex
There are many ship registers available; not all are included in ShipIndex.org, since acquiring a list of their content can be quite difficult (or impossible!). Some examples:
Section 5. Ways of searching the free web most effectively
When using Google, try the “AROUND” function, with the vessel type – so, for example, “constellation AROUND(5) sloop-of-war” – very different results from just “constellation“!
Use citations from Wikipedia to discover great sources about those ships that have Wikipedia entries.
Section 6. Finding the books and journals you’ve identified
Using WorldCat.org (from OCLC, based in Dublin, Ohio) to locate libraries that own a particular title – but consider the many challenges that come with searching WorldCat. It is not particularly reliable anymore. It’s very difficult to determine what library has a particular journal (ie, magazine) that you want. Become friends with your interlibrary borrowing partners! (And be sure to support them!)
If you’re having problems with OCLC, try searching the OhioLINK central catalog, to see which academic libraries in Ohio have a particular title.
Section 7. Searching for historical newspapers online – a great tool for learning more
The Ohio Memory project includes lists of, and links to, many Ohio newspapers — most 19th century ones come from the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America project.
If searching is possible, certainly give it a try, but many interfaces do not have good search functionality. Conversion to text can also be very bad, which limits searching.
For an amazing interface and project, see the remarkable California Digital Newspaper Collection. I’ve become slightly obsessed with correcting content here, and I’ve discovered that the San Francisco Call has numerous listings of vessel arrivals and departures across the West Coast.
Section 8. Using University Libraries to do further research (APPROACH #1 – with database access)
Many – but definitely not all – academic libraries will allow visitors to enter and use their databases. When librarians sign contracts to provide access to these expensive databases, we try to ensure access for “walk-in” users – for anyone who comes in to the library. This will especially be true for public academic libraries. If you have an academic library near you, ask if you can use most of its resources as a walk-in user.
In Ohio, you have access to a range of databases via Ohio Web Library (though not, notably, ProQuest newspaper databases).
ProQuest Historical Newspapers is a valuable resource when searching newspapers. Others include Accessible Archives, NewsBank, and more. In ProQuest, try using “NEAR” function: so, “monongahela NEAR oiler“. (Use NEAR/#, where # is the number of words. NEAR without a number defaults to 4 words.)
Section 9. Using University Libraries without access, from afar – it’s still doable, sort of! (APPROACH #2 – without database access)
“Discovery Layers” are a tool for searching much (but definitely not all) subscription databases, all at once. Content from many subscription databases is pre-indexed and users can search a lot of databases all at once, similar to using Google.
There are two main companies who offer Discovery Layers: ProQuest (in their Ex Libris division) and EBSCO. Each discovery layer does NOT include the content from its competitor. Since ProQuest has superior coverage of historical newspapers, find a major research library who uses the Ex Libris CDI and also allows you to search their discovery layer without logging in. This site shows which of the largest US & Canadian libraries use which discovery layer. Use a library in the “Ex Libris CDI” section because they will include ProQuest databases in the discovery layer. Select a university, then click on “Library Web Site,” and find the place to start searching.
Not all libraries will allow you to search without logging in, so if one doesn’t, try another. Yale will, for example, so they’re a great place to start. In the Yale interface, you can even narrow it down to just newspaper articles. BUT BUT BUT BUT — and this is important — you CANNOT get to the article itself, at least not here! Discovering that the article exists, however, might be incredibly valuable.
For more information about historical newspapers in a certain state or city, consider looking at the LibGuides about newspapers in the state or province at the largest university library, or the state library, for that state or province. For example, OSU, or State Library of Ohio.
Section 10. Searching for journals and newspapers
What do you do if you’ve found an article, or a journal, that isn’t available at the library near you? Your best option is probably interlibrary borrowing, but there are other options, as well.
Section 11. Conclusion.
I believe that vessel research can improve your family history, and the story you tell in your genealogy. Some of it might just be “adding leaves to the tree” — finding images of ships that were tangentially connected with your family story, and look good in a document or book you create. Others will directly inform your understanding of your ancestors’ lives, such as by learning about the battles those on board a warship (including your ancestor) during World War II, or during another conflict.
I hope that learning a bit about some ways of doing some of this research might be useful and helpful to you.
We are thrilled to announce that our founder, Peter McCracken, was recently a guest on the “Journeys into Genealogy” podcast, hosted by the engaging Emma Cox.
Peter and Emma had a discussion on the invaluable role that maritime history plays in genealogical research. They took a deep dive into how ShipIndex.org assists historians and genealogists alike in uncovering the fascinating stories behind their ancestors’ sea voyages.
Emma Cox’s podcast, “Journeys into Genealogy“, explores the intricate world of genealogy, giving listeners unique insights into how to uncover their personal family histories. We were honored that Peter had the opportunity to share his maritime history expertise and demonstrate how ShipIndex.org can shed light on your family’s nautical past.
Our “Introduction to Searching ShipIndex.org” Research Help Guide provides an overview of the basic parts of searching ShipIndex.org. There are some advanced features, as well, and they’re worth knowing about.
It seems straightforward – type in a ship name, get results. Actually, there’s a whole lot more that you can do in the database, and it is, admittedly, kinda wonky and a bit tricky. Please watch the following video to better understand how to use the search features more effectively.
Here’s an overview of the most important points:
Remember that your search only brings back that ship name. There’s lots more after you click on the “See other matching ships” button.
To limit a search to just the ship name field, use the term “@ship_name” and then the name of the ship. For example, “@ship_name union“.
To search for a ship name that starts or ends with a specific word, use these characters: use “^” (the carat character) in front of a word, to indicate that the ship name must start with that word; or “$” (dollar sign) at the end of the word, to indicate the ship name must end with that word. For example:
“@ship_name ^union” to display ships whose name starts with “union” – Sample search
“@ship_name castle$” to display ships whose name ends with “castle” – Sample search
Use “*” (asterisk) to expand a search, but you must start with at least two characters.
A search for “acht*” returns ships where a word that starts with “acht” appears in the ship name or the citation. In this case, it includes “Acht Gebroeders”, “Achtienhoven”, “Martini Achter”, and “Y’acht Tu Put Family First”. Sample search. It does not look for “acht” within a word; it only looks for words that start with “acht”. (The apostrophe in “Y’acht” appears to create a new word; note that no entries with the full word “Yacht” appear in this search.)
If you search for “@ship_name *acht” you’ll get lots of citations for ships with names like “Deltagracht”, “Dotte Yacht”, and more. – Sample search.
And, if you put an asterisk before and after “acht”, you’ll get a combination of both searches from above, plus ship names where “acht” just appears within a word, as in “A Lil Naughty Yachty”. – Sample search.
You can even exclude specific words from ship names by putting a “!” (exclamation point) in front of the terms you want ignored. A search with the phrase “@ship_name ^mary !annie” will return all entries where the ship name starts with “mary” except for those that also have “annie” in the name. – Sample search
The full help page will give you more guidance as well. But it’s clear that there’s a lot you can do when searching the database.
An important concept here is that the ShipIndex.org database serves as a de facto authority file for vessels. There’s no larger collection of vessel names out there, and if you’re having a hard time finding information about a ship with the name you have, you might do some searching to see if there’s a different version of it. At a genealogy conference in England, a person came to me seeking information about a ship named “maid of sussex”. We found no ship with that name. Now, it might have still existed, but the ShipIndex.org database is pretty comprehensive at this point. By playing with the database, and searching for just “sussex”, for instance, then clicking on “See other matching ships”, we found “Sussex Maid,” which was, most likely, the ship she was seeking.
There are many ways of using and searching the ShipIndex.org database, even if you’re not subscribing. Give it a try, and let me know if you have questions or comments.
