United States port registration transcriptions

(revised 21 May 2006)

An inspired “New Deal” initiative which paid writers to write left a legacy of maritime records that does not seem well known even in the US and takes a lot of sleuthing down in catalogues through variations on the corporate publisher’s names, not helped by some being jointly sponsored.

The Survey of Federal Archives, a Work Projects Administration project, was organized in January 1936 with the National Archives as cooperating sponsor. In 1937 it became part of the Historical Records Survey which had been established in 1935 as part of the WPA’s Federal Writers' Project, to document resources for research in U. S. history. It was terminated in 1942. Altogether the HRS published more than 2,000 inventories. US National Archives became the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in 1985. NARA has extensive records of administration of WPA and apparently draft port records for San Francisco.

The WPA Survey of Federal Archives port transcriptions are undoubtedly a valuable record, covering the period before the List of Merchant Vessels of the United States publication commenced in 1868 and providing fuller details after that date. Coverage of ports and states was evidently very incomplete. Further information on contents, whether they were all compiled in standard format and so on would be appreciated in order to enable me to provide a better service. I do not have direct access to any.

Many WPA transcription projects were abruptly terminated when the US entered WWII. In some cases printing was already commenced but much was destroyed to make room for more urgent records. Some unpublished copies apparently passed into private hands (Log Chips) (and maybe since to libraries and museums?).

Many, if not all, contain names of captains and owners so they are of potential value to genealogists whose collective transcription projects are deservedly legendary. Please draw them to the attention of a genealogist near you. If you know of any references in US genealogical journals or web sites please let me know.

Log Chips Vol. I, 1949 p 76 reports that most of the volumes have some statistical summary tables and even descriptive account of the district. Masters and owners are indexed giving them genealogical as well as maritime history interest. The Log Chips list (pp 75-78) indicates the number of pages in most volumes. It is not comprehensive.

An article by F. R. Holdcamper in Volume 1 of American Neptune described the original port records held by National Archives in Washington, D.C. (now NARA, National Archives and Records Administration). Lyman reports that “practically all” the old registers and enrolments held by the local custom houses have been turned over to National Archives (Log Chips Vol. I, 1949 p 76).

Check List of Historical Records Survey Publications: Bibliography of Research Projects Reports, Child, Sargent B. and Holmes, Dorothy P., 1943, reprinted 1996, 110 pages. Lists all projects of the various Historical Records Survey Projects programmes of the WPA. I have not seen this. Observed for sale on internet.

I have listed below the references I have found so far. There were evidently more than Log Chips knew about. Please let me know of any more or any other full or partial lists so I can improve this one as a public service and perhaps an inspiration to image scanning and digitization projects. I have conducted some experiments into the potential application of optical character recognition software (OCR) to scanned images of maritime records. Font size seems critical. Anything typed and clear is potentially promising. Merely scanning images to CD of records such as these could greatly extend their accessibility. I doubt there are many if any outside the US and they are not well known there.

I have also listed some other publications of transcriptions and indexes of US port registrations and would be pleased to hear of more for inclusion (specifically port registration records, not built at lists or general local histories for this particular purpose).

Advice of hyperlinks to other full or partial lists would be particularly welcome. I don’t propose to reinvent the wheel or duplicate others unnecessarily.

Acknowledgments. Thank you to the following for contributions: Norman Brouwer, Bill Colby, Bill Schell.

CALIFORNIA

*Ship Registers and Enrolments , Port of Eureka, California, 1859-1920, San Francisco, 1941.

A project was commenced in San Francisco but no volume was published.

http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/069.html leads to

Record group 69.6.3 Records of the California WPA: Records of the San Francisco office of the Survey of Federal Archives, consisting of survey sheets and records relating to the WPA Ships Registry Project for ships registered between 1850 and 1910 at the port of San Francisco.

http://www.archives.gov/pacific/san-francisco/finding-aids/holdings-guide-03.html

leads to index of San Francisco ships and shipwrecks from WPA project

LOUISIANA

*Ship Registers and Enrolments of New Orleans, Louisiana, Louisiana State University, 1941. Six volumes cover 1804-1870.

MAINE

*Ship Registers and Enrolments of Machias, Maine, 1780-1930, Rockland, ME, 1942.

Part I covers A-K and Part II covers L-Z. (1,992 ships.)

*Ship Registers and Enrolments of Saco, Maine, 1791-1915. Rockland, ME, 1942. (336 ships)

These and others are at the Penobscot Marine Museum (subject to confirmation)

Bath, Vessels documented, (29 volumes)
Frenchmans Bay, Vessels documented (2 volumes)
Passamaquoddy, Vessels documented (3 volumes)
Penobscot-Castine, Vessels licensed under 20 tons, 1806-1833
Penobscot-Castine, Vessel licenses and enrollments, 1806-1833 (4 volumes)

Waldoboro and others are at the Maine Maritime Museum (subject to confirmation)
Waldoboro, Enrollments and Registrations. A-L and part of O-Z are in Maine Maritime Museum but not M-N.

Publication not under WPA auspices:

*Sailing Days on the Penobscot, Lincoln Colcord, Salem, 1932

MASSACHUSETTS

*Alphabetical List of Ship Registers, District of Barnstable, Massachusetts, 1814-1913, Boston, MA, 1938.

Covers all of Cape Cod, including Provincetown. Only the earliest register is given for each ship. No enrolments are included. (755 ships)

*Ship Registers and Enrolments of Boston and Charlestown, Boston, MA: National Archives Project, 1942. Volume I covers 1789 – 1795. (1,152 ships) I am advised that the Peabody-Essex Museum Library has the transcription slips for volumes of the Boston Registers which never got to publication.

*Ship Registers of Dighton-Fall River, Massachusetts, 1789-1938. Boston, MA: National Archives Project, 1939.

Covers only registers not enrolments and therefore omits many big schooners. (664 ships)

*Ship Registers of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Boston, MA: National Archives Project, 1940. Covers years 1796-1939 in three volumes: Vol. I: 1796-1850; Vol. II: 1851-1865; Vol. III: 1866-1939. Only registers are abstracted. (1,789 ships)

*Ship Registers of the District of Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1789-1908. Boston, MA: National Archives Project, 1939. Part I and Part II bound together in one volume. No enrolments included. Two parts separately indexed. (821 ships)

Publications not under WPA auspices:

*Salem and Beverley 1789-1900, Vols 39 and 41 of the Essex Institute of Historical Collections, collected as a separate volume published in 1906.

*Newburyport, 1789-1870, Stephen W. Phillips, Essex Institute, 1937

*Gloucester 1789-1875, Stephen W. Phillips, Essex Institute, 1937

NEW YORK

Publication not under WPA auspices:

List of American-flag merchant vessels that received certificates of enrolment or registry at he port of New York 1789-1867 (Record Groups 41 and 36), Special Lists Number 22, Compiled by Forrest R. Holdcamper, The National Archives, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, Washington, D. C., 1968. Relates to first New York registration only. Two volumes with some 800 pages with approximately 35 ships per page.

OREGON

*Ship Registers and Enrolments: Port of Marshfield, Oregon, 1873-1941. Portland, OR: 1942.

*Ship Registers and Enrolments: Port of Portland, Oregon, 1869-1941. Portland, OR: National Archives Project, 1942.

20 entries cover Yaquina (Newport). A few vessels built on Grays Harbor, Washington, are included

PENNSYLVANIA

*Ships Registers of Port of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Volume 1, A-D, 1942. Prepared by Survey of Federal Archives and Pennsylvania Historical Survey, Division of Community and Service Programs, Work Projects Administration, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1942. (Mimeo 293 pp.) (1,462 vessels, registered only) Only one of four projected volumes for Philadelphia actually issued (possibly unpublished drafts exist).

RHODE ISLAND

*Ship Registers and Enrolments of Newport, Rhode Island, 1790-1939, Vol. I., Providence, RI. National Archives Project,1938-1941. (2,143 vessels) Includes some Rhode Island vessels on English registers pre 1776.

*Ship licenses issued to vessels under 20 tons and ship licenses on enrolments issued out of the port of Newport, Rhode Island, 1790-1939, Vol. I.I, Providence, RI. (893 and 317 vessels respectively)

*Ship Registers and Enrolments of Providence, Rhode Island, 1773-1939. Providence, National Archives Project, 1941.

(two volumes) (3,681 ships)

*Ship Registers and Enrolments, Ship Licenses Issued to Vessels Under Twenty Tons…Port of Bristol-Warren, Rhode Island, 1773-1939. Providence, RI: National Archives Project, 1941. 435 pages.

*Ship licenses issued to vessels under 20 tons and ship licenses on enrolments issued out of the port of Providence, Rhode Island, 1793-1939, Vol. II, Providence, 1941 (720 vessels but 620 licenses are not indexed)

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