More great websites
You can search the aforementioned CLIP database at Findmypast’s Merchant Navy Crew Lists page ( search.findmypast.co.uk/ search-world- records/england-and-wales- merchant- navycrew- lists-1861-1913). Crew lists from Dorset History Centre and the Liverpool City Record Office are available via Ancestry ( search.ancestry.co.uk/search/category.aspx? cat=113). Other useful sources include Lloyd’s Captains Registers ( history. ac.uk/gh/capintro.htm) and the Guernsey Crew Lists index ( history.foote-family.com/maritime/index.php).
Via the Irish Marines website ( irishmariners. ie), you can search the names of 24,000 Irish seamen taken from the C10 record cards (for 1918 to 1921) held at Southampton City Records Office, and there’s information on 23,500 Welsh Master Mariners available at welshmariners.org.uk. There are also the Cardiff Mariners ( cardiffmariners.org.uk) and Swansea Mariners ( swanseamariners.org.uk) websites.
Alongside the Hull History Centre website mentioned on page 49, there’s this labour of love: hulltrawler.net. Produced “in remembrance of and dedicated to all Hull Trawlermen, their families and the vessels they sailed in,” it includes surname indexes to fishing families and the aforementioned Lost Trawlermen database.
The North East Lincolnshire Archives ( www.nelincs.gov.uk/ resident/libraries-and-archives/archives-- local-and-familyhistory/north- east- lincolnshire- archives- links) based in Grimsby, holds crew agreements for merchant and fishing boats registered in the port from 1864 to 1914.
There are websites detailing individual fishing families and communities – such as the Wadhams Fishermen and Dredgermen of the Medway ( wadhamsfamilyhistory.co.uk/ WadhamsFishermen.htm) – some of which you can track down via the Fisherman and Mariners Cindi’s List page at cyndislist. com/occupations/ fishermen-and- mariners. The old Mariners Mailing List website ( mariners- l.co.uk/ UKFishermen.html) has some useful information about important collections at TNA.
Other websites that may be useful include Fishing Boat Heritage ( fishingboatheritage.com); Maritime Heritage East ( maritimeheritageeast.org.uk), a project involving more than 30 museums and heritage organisations; the history of the Hastings Fishermen’s Protection Society ( hastingsfish.co.uk/ history.htm); and via Hartlepool Then and Now ( hhtandn.org) you can explore fishing galleries that show the Fish Quay, local fishermen, vessels and more.
Other centres and museums include the National Maritime Museum Cornwall ( nmmc.co.uk), the Fishermen’s Heritage Centre in Sheringham ( sheringhamsociety.com/ fishermensheritage- centre), True’s Yard Fisherfolk Museum ( truesyard. co.uk), Buckie and District Fishing Heritage Centre ( buckieheritage.org) and the Scottish Maritime Museum ( scottishmaritimemuseum.org).