I’ve added lots of new content to the database in the past few weeks, but I haven’t been good about making a note of that here.
I’ve just finished adding a really significant resource: Warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1869-1945, by Hansgeorg Jentschura, Dieter Jung, and Peter Mickel. This is a 1977 translation of the original work, written in German. It has an enormous amount of information in it, and an extensive index.
There’s also a section titled “Miscellaneous Mercantile Auxiliary Vessels,” which has tons more information, but isn’t included in the index proper. I have, however, added all of the ships mentioned in this section to the ShipIndex.org database. The section has brief information about several thousand vessels, such as the following:
“Hinode Maru (Transport): 5256 grt steamer, built 1930; requisitioned 1947; sunk 10 June 1943 north of New Ireland by US submarine Silversides.”
In this case, you’ll find the entry Hinode Maru (Transport) in the ShipIndex database.
Working through this index made me curious about the many vessels that were used in attempting to blockade Port Arthur. I didn’t really know anything about Port Arthur, so I did some quick investigating, and found it’s in Manchuria, and the blockade was part of the start of the Russ0-Japanese War of 1905. You learn all kinds of things doing this stuff!
As one indication of the value of this index, it has added over 3500 completely new vessels to the index. Resources with an Anglo-American focus tend to not add too many new vessels to the index — they usually cite vessels that are already in the index, but this time I’m pleased to be able to extend the coverage of the index quite a bit. To that end, if you know of resources that should be added, especially covering non-US or -UK subjects, please do let me know and I’ll look forward to having an opportunity to add them.
I also added a resource that’s much more relevant to history closer to home: Fiorello La Guardia’s Maritime History of New York, from 1941. Actually, it looks like La Guardia only wrote the introduction, and “sponsored” the publication – it was written by people employed by the Writers Program of the Works Project Administration for New York City. Whereas nearly 75% of the entries from the Jentschura book, above, are new, unduplicated vessels, in this book it’s more like 5%. (It does add the two privateers United We Stand and Divided We Fall, though, which is neat.)
These two titles above were added today. The following were added in the past ten days:
- G. W. Blunt White Library. New London (Conn.) Crew Lists Index: 1803-1878. Mystic, Conn.: Mystic Seaport Museum. (This is an online resource.)
- Greenwood, John Orville. Namesakes, 1930-1955: A Quarter Century Photostory of Great Lakes Ships. Cleveland: Freshwater Press, 1978.
- Jane, Fred T. The British Battle Fleet: Its Inception and Growth Throughout the Centuries to the Present Day. London: Tri-Service Press, 1990. (This is a reprint of the 1915 edition.)
- Lance, Kate. Redbill: From Pearls to Peace, The Life and Times of a Remarkable Lugger. North Fremantle, Australia: Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2004.
- Lawson, Siri Holm. Norwegian Merchant Fleet, 1939-1945. : , 2001-. (This is an online resource.)
- Log of Mystic Seaport (1948-2003). Mystic, Conn.: Mystic Seaport Museum.
- Olsson, Nils William. Swedish Passenger Arrivals in New York, 1820-1850. Chicago: Swedish Pioneer Historical Society, 1967.
- Ridgely-Nevitt, Cedric. American Steamships on the Atlantic. Newark, Del.: University of Delaware Press, 1981.
- Roland, Alex, W. Jeffery Bolster, and Alexander Keyssar. The Way of the Ship: America’s Maritime History Reenvisioned, 1600-2000. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2008.
- Tod, Giles M. S. The Last Sail Down East. Barre, Mass.: Barre Publishers, 1965.
We’ll do a better job of listing resources when they’re added, and we’ll probably also put a “new” note next to these resources in the Resource list for a month or so after we’ve added them.
Again, if you know of resources that should be added, please let me know!