Possible collaborative resource development sub-projects

Some genealogical resource development teams reinforce their efforts through the stratagem of an offer that “we give you the pages you need that we haven’t done yet in return for you transcribing a batch of information to go into the common resource”.

If the idea of this type of strategy appeals to anyone, various of my sub-projects could be advanced in this way. I cannot possibly carry them out in entirety and they vary in priority for my own work programme. Some are simply a resource I have encountered and taken the opportunity to secure knowing of its potential utility in the wider field and to ensure its availability in my country. I may be able co-ordinate and facilitate transcription by others of those I cannot give my full attention or first priority to. Some can only be done within NZ but most could be done in any other country.

I’m afraid that experience indicates that I have to say this but this isn’t an invitation to all and sundry to use me as a “24/7” on demand look-up service for some fact that you surmise might possibly be in one of the following. It’s an invitation to people with serious interest to pool efforts to develop resources for the common good.

You need not necessarily be able to make a large contribution or contribute over an extended period. The power of teamwork is the potential to combine several people’s few hours per week, fortnight or month into something that none could achieve individually.

The form and timing of outputs will necessarily vary. My general approach is one of covering costs rather than attempting to profit as I judge that no significant profits are to be made and the attempt would significantly reduce the use made of the results and therefore the return on the labour invested in the advancement of maritime history.

Potentially, I can offer “copies for transcriptions” “deals” in respect of US records as follows:

1. the annual lists of losses of US vessels included in the LMVUS from 1906 onward.

2. adding which signal codes were still included in signal code lists at selected dates to my master signal code list to indicate whether vessels were still on the register.

3. the 1932 US signal code list (which has surprisingly few gaps among those built since 1920 suggesting that it comes pretty close to a list of foreign going and sizeable merchant vessels for 1920-32).

4. the 1933 US signal code list with the new series reallocated codes (which I don’t particularly want myself but can link to the 1932 list by official number to provide an old/new series translation file as a public service and to demonstrate the value of dataset linking).

5. If anyone is interested in working on the 1846-1854 Rogers listing or 1859-1864 US Commercial Code of Signals listing I can provide a basic file with much of the information structure, but only a smattering of the ship names and tonnages at this stage, to which details can be added with less effort than independently starting from scratch (you could add further details to it for your own purposes and to help me develop a more complete file that I will distribute at cost when complete). If you want to work on US registers around the mid-late 1860’s I could probably also arrange something similar for that subject to the agreement of a contact and clarifying a possible copyright issue.

If you are reading this from a British, NZ or Australian context I invite collaboration on or can offer similar deals in respect of:

1. transcription of “Watt’s Index” of NZ ships to 1950. A priority. I am working on transcription in agreement with NZ Ship and Marine Society as part of overall revision and updating. People needed for double-entry checking of my first stage and to commence the second priority modules.

2. the 1873 Mercantile Navy List. of particular interest as it provides greater detail than previously published for around half of all British vessels allocated official numbers since 1855 (thereby identifying those others which must be fleshed out with details from other sources). This resource has particular value for covering migrant ships to NZ and Australia in a key period when sail was still predominant.

3. loss lists from Mercantile Navy List. I have most from 1875 to 1899 but lack 1898 and 1900-(?1908) and would be pleased to exchange copies of those I lack for some that I have and to give copies in return for transcriptions. (Note that these are losses and additions only while the MNL was in press, not for the complete year as in the case of the American lists but they cover enough to make a useful input to a general compilation of losses so they are worth transcribing and therefore within my strategy. They cannot possibly cover more than one British loss in six in a year so do not have high expectations of finding the particular ship you are interested in among them.) The lists drop out of the MNL sometime between 1899 and 1909.

4. early UK captains’ certificate number lists. Not something I intend to develop personally in foreseeable future but I have a substantial part of this resource for the 1860’s and would like to fill the gaps so that they are available here. I could organise and consolidate the efforts of people wanting to work on them. It potentially provides a listing of certificates in the period leading up to the Lloyd’s Captains’ List of 1869 (available on microfiche) which covers only a proportion of them so that the two together would complement each other.

5. NZ river steamer lists. These steamers were not registered but over some fifty years provided important passenger and cargo feeder services. Not a priority but a useful extension of Watt that has been almost entirely neglected. Good records exist, partly printed and extended by written archives. One that I might well do myself some day but not as high a priority as others. A good candidate for “subcontracting” to people with a greater interest in steamers. Several hundred small steamers are involved.

6. help with indexing Australasian historical ship publications (such as Ronald Parsons’ books) could help me advance this project more rapidly for everybody’s benefit.

European and Japanese records: There may also be some opportunities for collaboration in respect of these. I am working primarily on American and British official number indexes but have explored a starting point for early Japanese official numbers index and have identified a possible source of material for a digital Swedish index. Japanese and Swedish indexes may well exist already, unknown in the English-speaking research world. If you know of one please contact me.

contact j_lowe@ihug.co.nz

to return to main maritime menu click here or use back arrow to return