After 1861, only a sample of lists of teams and agreements and logbooks was kept in the National Archives. Many do not survive at all, while many of the survivors are kept in other archives, including: occupancy lists and agreements were either for travel abroad, for „travel abroad“ or for „original trips“ or „domestic trade“. From 1835, the captains of British merchant ships, who were and are legally required to keep records of the names of their crew and return them to the authorities (at the end of the 19th century, the Board of Trade of the British government). If there is no return on time, this can lead to delays in the vessel and delays for the master, and compliance seems to have been a good thing. For advice on how to find the same types of records before 1861, check out our guide to crew lists and agreements 1747-1860. Crew account, including the name of the captain and crew, the years of birth, the old ships, the date and location of the current ship link, the ability and date, the location and cause of leaving the ship For this period, the crew lists are in BT 98 per year, the carrying of the register and are then grouped in boxes according to the original letter of the ship`s name. To find the crew list of a ship on which only one sailor was sailing, it is necessary to determine its name – this is not indicated in the marine service records until 1854. Searching for all available crew lists is only useful for small ports. The National Records of Scotland holds agreements and crew lists under the reference BT 3, which applies to Scottish ships in 1867-1913. Ships are listed in alphabetical order by name in the paper catalogue. The official protocols are found with the agreements and occupancy lists where they survive. The P-O ships employed thousands of crews and coastal workers around the world, and until 1747 no systematic recording of the merchant ship crew was recorded.
Until that date, the researcher must rely on the accidental survival of material under records kept for other purposes, including state documents and those of the Colonial Office, the Ministry of Finance, the High Court of Admiralty and the High Court of Delegates. Most of these records are not indexed in a way that would allow for the identification of a particular vessel or sailor. These documents were given to the sailor, and you could find them if they were kept by the person or his family. Very few of them appear to have been kept in official archives in the UK, although it is sometimes possible to find a publication (M list) for the entire crew with crew lists in BT 98.