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Crew Agreements Indices Search
(Please note the search may return records from several institutions showing crew agreements for the same year. This does not mean they are duplicate records. Rather, it means the vessel, having sailed on several voyages within the year, has a crew agreement for each voyage and these files are stored at various places.)
This program searches by official number only. The databases accessed by this search will inform the visitor whether a particular archive has the crew agreement. They will not provide any information on the agreement's contents. To obtain that data he or she will need to contact the appropriate institution.
The search program examines two databases when entering an official number. One contains a complete list of crew agreements at the Maritime History Archive and the other consists of records of crew agreements at various British institutions.
The data for British institutions is incomplete. It is dependent on information provided by them, and on occasion may be outdated. In addition, some institutions did not submit data on their holdings. A list of these institutions, and why the majority of crew agreements are stored at the Maritime History Archive is provided elsewhere on our site.
A crew agreement provides particulars about a vessel, including the port of registry, tonnage, form of propulsion, owner(s) and intended voyage. It also provides information on each crew member including the person's name, year and place of birth, capacity, previous vessel served on, and date of signing on and off the vessel.
For MHA documents it returns the year(s) and type(s) of documents that exist for that number. The agreements and logbooks for voyages terminating for the years 1863 - 1938 are indexed. The agreements for the years 1951 - 1976 have not been. For the MHA staff to search the agreements for a particular seafarer, we must know the name or official number of the vessel, and the approximate dates that person served on it. Once a person has been located, it is sometimes possible to trace his or her career back through previous vessels.
For documents at British institutions it returns the year(s) and a hot-linked code which when clicked provides the name and contact information of the institution.
For information on ordering copies of crew agreements from the Maritime History Archive please go to the Ordering Crew Agreements page.
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