Domestic Records Information 94 1. The best starting point is the over 200 published volumes of Calendars to the Domestic, Foreign and Colonial Papers, ranging from the reign of Henry VIII to that of George III, on open access at the PRO, but also available elsewhere. These calendars contain sufficient information from the original document usually making recourse to the original papers unnecessary.
Most calendars contain indexes to persons, places and ships.
Registration of ships was the consequence of a series of Navigation Acts from 1660 onwards, which were intended to compel British merchants to use British built ships with predominantly British crews for the carriage of their goods. Since the Middle Ages the State had sought to promote the domestic ship-building industry and to ensure that there would be sufficient numbers of British sailors to man the Royal Navy in time of war. Registration was made compulsory by the Shipping and Navigation Act 1786 which established the Registrar General of Shipping, under the Board of Customs. The Merchant Shipping Act 1854 transferred general superintendence of all matters relating to merchant ships to the Board of Trade. In 1701 one of the Commissioners of Customs was directed to keep a register of all trading ships and to check the particulars of vessels engaged in outport shipping.