Statistical and Archives Queries (US)

(new 19 June 2006)

 

 

In this section I have listed my more intractable US data access and technical problems in order to more conveniently refer them to a number of people rather than one at a time. The needs arise from my involvement in comparatively technical stuff so if you are able to help me with these the chances are there will be something I can help you with. I would expect to reimburse copying and postage costs and to provide what assistance I can in return.

 

Queries are listed under

 

● Statistical

 

1.      1880 Commerce and Navigation statistics publication

2.      determining specific contents of pre 1867 volumes of the forerunner of the series.

 

● Archives

 

1.      Complete master list of US official numbers

2.      Complete master list of US signal codes of the period 1868-1932

 

 

● Statistical

 

1. Photocopying of statistical tables from the Annual Report and Statements of the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics on the Commerce and Navigation of the United Stated for the Fiscal Year Ended 30 June 1880. This should be readily available in libraries with good sets of US government statistical publications and Congressional Documents which one would reasonably expect to find somewhere or other in every US state capital and major long-established universities.

 

The title can vary slightly. Some years may be in two volumes (Exports and Imports in one, Ships in the other). The 1880 statistics were very probably published in 1881 so both 1880 and 1881 may appear in the complete catalogue title entry. The critical point of identification is that the statistics concern the full details of vessel registrations and construction in the fiscal year ended 30 June 1880. I already have the general annual summaries of statistics that include this year – it is the fuller details published only in this specific volume that I am hunting.

 

I need this year to eliminate a particularly inconvenient and irritating gap in my statistical series as it is the only year in a series from 1868 to WWI that I have not been able to access yet by one means or another. It is holding up completion of some analyses and graphs.

 

Copies of this publication series are regularly for sale on the internet at surprising cheap prices (there being limited demand despite the rarity and age) but I haven’t yet found one there (fiscal year 1881 is available but that is no help).

 

I cannot specify the exact table and page numbers I require because I cannot inspect the particular volume – if I could, I wouldn’t be asking. What I can do, is specify the references for the years either side which should provide a good indication. If you can only access the 1880 volume I can supply a detailed list of the tables concerned.

 

In the volume for the 1879 fiscal year the relevant tables are tables 63 to 83 inclusive in 1879 and in 1881 tables 66 to 85. These should suffice to identify the tables I require from the 1880 volume. Caution: there may be separate numbering for trade and ship statistics – these give statistics of numbers of ships registered and built.

 

Occasionally, libraries may forbid either photocopying or taking digital camera images. If so, the particular table that I most urgently require is sufficiently small for it to be easily transcribed by hand. I copy below its information from the volumes either side in order to identify it and indicate exactly what information is required. If you can only find me the figures from the 1880 publication missing from the table below I will be most grateful.

 

Summary statement of Sailing-vessels built in the United States during the years 1879 - 1881

 

 

1879

1879

1880

1880

1881

1881

 

Table 72

Table 72

Table ?

Table ?

Table 74

Table 74

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Number

Tonnage

Number

Tonnage

Number

Tonnage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ships

15

25,292.25

 

 

10

15,103.62

Barks

20

16,887.11

 

 

12

10,090.76

Barkentines

2

1,265.00

 

 

7

3,025.60

Brigs

10

3,466.53

 

 

3

1,163.41

Schooners

256

18,280.14

 

 

318

49,481.97

Sloops

165

1,678.36

 

 

143

2,344.21

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total

468

66,867.36

 

 

493

81,209.57

 

It is possible that 1880 distinguishes Brigantines from Brigs. If so, I would want that information separately.

 

There is a different summary table which gives a long time series by rig covering 1880. I already have this but it does not provide the level of detail shown above which is critical for the particular statistical analysis. The information in the detailed  series of tables makes it possible to track changes in the average size of each rig and also the proportion of the total tonnage constructed represented by the larger, but numerically rare, rig types (it will be apparent from the above example that a handful of three-masted square-riggers constituted from a third to two-thirds of total construction.)

to email me j_lowe@ihug.co.nz

 

 

2. Determining the specific contents of pre 1867 volumes of the forerunner of the post Civil War Commerce and Navigation series. Forerunners of this publication go well back in the 19th century but I do not have access to any earlier than 1867. While they can be purchased second hand that is an expensive way to find out whether it includes the details I need. I would appreciate hearing whether any pre-1867 volumes contain the above table at that level of detail, in which case I would want to obtain copies, probably of them alone and how the content of other detailed ship-related statistics varies. I suspect that the same level of detail was not compiled before 1867, but I need to be certain as the statistical analysis and database checking implications are profound. The 1864-1867 years were a time of major nautical reorganisation and may not be indicative of publication practice before the Civil War.

 

The earlier volumes will contain a table detailing the numbers of each rig built in each year but not at the same level of detail – it will aggregate the 3-masted square-rigs into one category and will only give the tonnage for all types of sailing vessels combined. I already have this time series. It is the higher level of disaggregation that I require. In later years, these tabulations were separated out to become part of the separate Annual Report of the Commissioner of Navigation series (I am already aware of these and have what I require from them.)

 

Earlier volumes will vary slightly in title. The 1867 volume is titled Annual Report of the Director of the Bureau of Statistics, on the Commerce and Navigation of the United States for the Fiscal Year............

 

to email me j_lowe@ihug.co.nz

 

 

 

 

● Archives

 

I do not require the following information at this stage from Federal and State archives, simply to know more specifically whether these sources exist and how to access them when the time comes. Particular queries are:

 

1. Complete master list of US official numbers: Complete master list of US official numbers from 1867 through to the 1920’s and 1930’s. It appears that the numbers were allocated centrally so there should be some form of list in Federal archives but it is possible that there were also port or regional sub-lists or that it remains within the operational files of whichever is the current relevant federal administrative agency. 

 

I am working on a master index in collaboration/consultation with a number of others from secondary sources. It is inevitable that there will be a few gaps because of ships that were so short-lived that they do not appear in these records at all. It is also inevitable that there will be at least a few anomalies that can only be resolved by reference to primary records - not even proof-read official publications are absolutely free from occasional transposed numbers.

 

I would like to know where to find the original master list, compiled in official number order, so that I can get directly to which ship is supposed to be such and such an uncertain number or whether such and such a number was ever actually allocated. I estimate that in consequence of the revision of the system of allocating numbers in 1903, only about half of the preliminary range of numbers was actually used by the US so there is a real issue of whether particular gaps do or do not represent an actual vessel.

 

I would certainly like to know of any other lists of US official numbers that may exist or are being compiled that I don’t already know of and to computer-match my records with these for mutual checking purposes but this will not remove the need to be able to refer back to primary records to resolve anomalies.

 

to email me j_lowe@ihug.co.nz

 

 

2. Complete master list of US signal codes of the period 1868-1932:  Likewise for US signal codes (signal letters) for the 1867-1932 period (different systems of codes applied outside these dates). I have identified which vessel held nearly every signal code allocated between 1885 and WWI but there a few I haven’t been able to identify and some earlier anomalies that I need to resolve. I am missing several dozen for the WWI period and do not have the same access to sources for the 1920’s so I will wind up with an “intractables” list that can only be resolved with the aid of original primary records.

 

For fuller background explanation regarding US signal codes click here (use Back arrow to return).

 

to email me j_lowe@ihug.co.nz

 

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