Resources for finding ships' names

[Caro]

Please post questions and suggestions for additions or changes to this list in the discussion topic.


GENERAL

Dreadnought Project: Ships

Haze Gray & Underway Search Engine
You'll probably have to do the 'search' yourself ...
Parts, or all, of the site have not been updated since 2003

Historic Naval Ships Association
Find ships by location or type

Lloyds Register of Shipping 1930-1945
"The Registers for 1930-1945 were digitised as part of the Plimsoll ship data project by the Southampton City Libraries and Archives Services in conjunction with Lloyd's Register's Heritage & Education Centre.
The fields can be searched by ship name(s), year of build and gross tonnage."
See also Lloyd's Register of Ships Online for logs from 1764 to 1998.
Also Books Boxes and Boats for Lloyds Registers 1764-1900 (Google books scans) and Lloyds American & Foreign Shipping 1859-1869, Christies Shipping Register 1858 and North of England Maritime Directory & Shipping Register 1848.

Navypedia's Fighting Ships of the World

oceania
Global maritime history 1500-1939, merchant fleets and navies
See sidebar for countries
Countries not listed can usually be found by looking under Other countries by continent

Ships List
Names and brief histories of shipping companies and lists of vessels they operated

Ship Index Org
Books, magazines, and online resources for ships' names (subscription for full access; the free list is useful)

Special Types of Ships
Barques, clippers, square rigged sailing ships, barges

Warships and Submarines Index

Wireless Telegraph Stations of the World, 1908
Including shore stations, merchant vessels, Revenue cutters and vessels of the United States Navy

World Naval Ships
From the 19th century onwards

WreckSite
More than 180,000 wrecks listed

Arthur D Edwardes Collection
"Records comprising 91 volumes of photographs of ships, organised under type of ship, or ownership, and with basic caption information."


AMERICAS

US Naval Ships History

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

The Library of Congress Ships & Ship Registers: Sources of Information

Index of 19th Century Naval Vessels

The New Navy 1883-1922

Whaling History: American Whaling Voyages

Mystic Seaport Collections: US Ship Registers

National Maritime Digital Library

US Submarines 1900-1940

The naval and mail steamers of the United States

Maritime History Archive: Mercantile Navy List & Maritime Directory

Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States
1895 onwards

USN naval registers 1775-1900
23.9MB pdf

General Cargo Ships Built in Great Lakes Shipyards 1917-1921

Alaska Shipwrecks 1750-2015

BOEM list of Alaska shipwrecks
pdf

Yukon / Alaska sternwheelers
with separate lists of side paddlewheelers, propellor-driven boats, barges and one raft

South American merchant vessels
Spanish language

Ships of the Canadian Navy

Search: Ship Registrations 1787-1966, Library and Archives Canada

Mahone Bay Museum Ship Database

Steel steam schooners of Pacific Coast (1944)

1899 Blue Book of American Shipping
Marine and Naval Directory of the United States

MARAD Vessel History Database
Database of information on more than 12,000 vessels of the Maritime Administration’s (MARAD) National Defense Reserve Fleet and Ready Reserve force.


ASIA/PACIFIC

Ships of the Australian Commonwealth Line 1914-1928

His Majesty's Australian Transport (HMAT) Ships

Australian Shipping Lines

Royal Australian Navy Ship Histories

New Zealand Maritime Index

Register of Australian & New Zealand Shipping 1921
Other years available.

New Zealand Troopships WWI

Wikipedia: Ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy

Philippines ships 1903


EUROPE

ROYAL NAVY, WWI

Index
Warships, auxiliary patrol vessels, support and harbour vessels
Listed by name, pendant number, Admiralty number, motor boat number, fishing port registration number

Warships
Capital ships to submarines
Listed by type

Auxiliary patrol vessels
Hired yachts, Admiralty and hired trawlers, Fishery Reserve vessels, whalers, Admiralty, hired steam- and motor-drifters
Listed by type

Support and harbour vessels
Private support and harbour vessels
Listed by type (work in progress)

'Pink lists'
12 Royal Navy pink lists showing location/action data for warships between 1 November 1914 and 1 January 1916

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Shipping and Shipbuilding: British and Irish Shipyards
Covering shipyards in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic not already covered in www.tynebuiltships.co.uk, www.sunderlandships.com and www.teesbuiltships.co.uk.

Clyde Ships
Now Scottish Built Ships and aiming to provide information on 'all vessels built by the shipyards of Scotland' ...
Tees Built Ships
Tyne Built Ships
Wear Built Ships 1743-1990

Crew List Index Project
Records of British merchant seafarers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Aberdeen Built Ships
Nearly 3,000 ships built in Aberdeen since 1811

Belfast: Harland and Wolff Ships

Fleetwood Steam & Sailing Trawlers

Grimsby Trawlers 1876-1976

Humber Packet Boats: Hull Ship & Boat Builders

Thames Tugs
Thames & London tugs from 1833 onwards

Thames Sailing Barges

Britain's Navy Through the Ages

British Military Lists
Royal Navy officers, WWI & WWII; includes Royal Marines, Royal Flying Corps, Royal Naval Air Service
Also lists ships and other vessels

Mariners' List
Includes English, Irish, Scottish & Welsh shipping companies

Mid-Victorian Royal Navy
Information about ships, officers and more

Details of RN ships, transcribed/edited

RN Destroyer Pendant Numbers

Royal Navy Log Books of the World War 1 Era: An Old Weather Citizen History Project
Index of edited and transcribed RN logs

Elco motor launches
Admiralty vessels ordered from the Electric Launch Company Inc of New York

Royal Fleet Auxiliary
RFA ship names and history

Ship Names of the Royal Navy (Wikipedia)

Roll of Honour
Many of the naval and merchant ships lost, including German ships interned at Scapa Flow (please credit the website if quoting)

The Problems of Neutrality When The World Is At War
"A History of Our Relations With Germany And Great Britain As Detailed In The Documents That Passed Between The United States And The Two Belligerent Powers"
On pages 256-269 is a partial list of the ships detained by Britain in the early part of the war.

Sjohistorie: Norwegian Ships List

Norwegian Sailing Ships

Norwegian Merchant Fleet 1939-1945

Norwegian Ships: Sailing & Steam, 1894-1920

Skibsliste: Danish Ships List

Danish Naval Ships 1914-1918

Faroese Ships
You will probably need some translation here! Not found

Fishing Ports and Port Registration Letters
Mostly European/Scandinavian

Maritiem-Historische Databank Index: Dutch Ships
Dutch text

Belgian Fishing Fleet
Early 20th century onwards

Ships of the Great War
French text

Belgian Marine
16.6MB pdf from: http://www.navidoc-marines.be/Photo.html

Wikipedia: Cruisers of the Russian Navy

Wikipedia: Ships of the Portuguese Navy

German U-boats, WWI and WWII
Also includes Allied warships

Wikipedia: Naval Ships of Germany

Wikipedia: Regia Marina (Royal Navy of Italy) 1861 to 1946
Wikipedia: Marina Militare (Military Navy of Italy) 1946 to present

1914 Italian Merchant Marine list of steamers
Italian text
Following is a guide to the contents supplied by Silvia:
pp 157 -256: Alphabetical list of steamers
pp 265-302: List of steamers based on ship owners
pp 307-316: Table of speed of steamers operated by the Italian State
pp 317-323: List of emigrant ships
pp 325-328: Merchant Marine steamers equipped with Marconi wireless telegraph
pp 338-342: List of pleasure craft
pp 366-375: List of ships involved in accidents at sea
p 407: List of coral ships that took part in coral fishing at Sciacca
pp 543-563: List of Foreign and Italian Steamers and number of passengers they are allowed to transport in short and long distance voyages

Spanish Warships & Merchant Vessels 1918
Spanish text

Swedish Ship Index
Swedish text

Russian Navy & Coastguard ships since 1945

Portuguese Navy ships 1918


AFRICA/MIDDLE EAST/ASIA

Royal Indian Navy 1612-1950

British India Steamships 1856-1972

Nile Gunboats

Liners and freighters (French and others) assigned to Algerian lines

Philippines ships (1903): Report of the Philippine Commission to the Secretary of War (Google Books)


NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES

California Digital Newspaper Collection
Includes regular shipping reports (notably the SF Call and LA Herald around the turn of the 20th century).

Trove: Newspapers from the National Library of Australia
Search or browse 'Shipping Notices', date, place etc