Alcove 9: An Annotated List of Reference Websites

Maritime History

Encyclopedia Titanica
Exhaustive site devoted to the ill-fated luxury liner Titanic, with passenger and crew lists (some entries with brief biographical information), deck plans, the full text of both British and American inquiries into the sinking, photographs, sound recordings, and many other resources. The site is free but advertiser-supported; for a fee researchers can access special features and use the site without viewing advertisements and pop-ups.

Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934
From Ancestry.com and the Hamburg State Archive, a searchable database (in German) of passengers on ships departing the port of Hamburg. This resource is available free of charge, but users must register with Ancestry.com to access the full-text passenger lists.

Historical Collections of the Great Lakes
Maintained by Bowling Green University Libraries. Includes searchable databases of vessels, ports, and maritime personnel. The Historical Collections of the Great Lakes has combined its vessel data sheets with approximately 90,000 images of Great Lakes vessels, both provided online. Vessels are searchable by using one or more fields such as vessel name, official number, place built, etc. Ports can be searched by location and keyword, while personnel can be searched by name, location, and other information.

J. Porter Shaw Library (San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park)
Library holdings include logbooks from the American President, Dollar Steamship, and American Mail Lines (1925-1944); the John Lyman Collection; the Barbara Johnson Whaling Collection; vessel plans (1878-1966) in the David W. Dickie Collection, and others. Most of the holdings are searchable online as part of the National Park Service Libraries combined online catalog.

Mystic Seaport
Website for the major U.S. maritime museum and research center. The G.W. Blunt White Library has made available online over a dozen ship and yacht registers, including the earliest editions for the New York Marine Register (1857), American Lloyd’s Register of American and Foreign Shipping (1859), Record of American and Foreign Shipping (1871), Fox’s Yachting Annual (1872), and the American Yacht List (1874).

National Archives (United Kingdom)
Collections at the National Archives, UK (formerly the Public Record Office), span 1000 years of British history. The Archives Catalogue and the Resource Centre and Library Catalogue are searchable online. The "Getting Started" section of this website includes pathfinders for finding archival information related to the Royal Navy, the Merchant Navy, and the Royal Marines.

National Maritime Museum (United Kingdom)
The Museum's website includes digital representations of thousands of items from the museum collections, including manuscripts of English explorer Matthew Flinders (1774-1814); information about the museum's collected works of art; and catalogs of historic photographs, publications and manuscripts, and prints and drawings.

Naval Historical Center (U.S. Department of the Navy)
The Naval Historical Center offers the only official online version of the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The Dictionary is browseable by ship name and includes information about Confederate naval vessels. Researchers may also use the NHC website's search engine for keyword searches. New information is constantly being added to their list of Frequently Asked Questions.

New Bedford Whaling Museum
The Museum's Kendall Institute Research Library offers an overview of American whaling history; an introductory bibliography on whaling; a bibliography for educators and students; a searchable inventory of microfilmed whaling logbooks and journals by whaleship name, port of registry, year, master, and keeper; descriptions of implements used in whaling; a searchable list of "fakeshaw" (fake and fraudulent “scrimshaw”); and other resources.

USS Constitution Museum
Website for the museum dedicated to the world's oldest commissioned warship, located in Boston, Massachusetts. The Frequently Asked Questions list provides answers to numerous inquiries about the frigate, its dimensions, construction, commanders, engagements, etc.

Vancouver Maritime Museum
The Museum's official website includes a history of the Museum, a database of "hidden treasures" from the collections, the W.B. and M.H. Chung Library catalog, and other features.