NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICAN SHIPPING REGISTERS
Gary Knecht, Oakland, CA
knechtgary@aol.com.
21 January 2002

During the 1850s American entrepreneurs in New York created two publications that were similar to the 90-year-old London-based Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping. The new American shipping registers served the same purposes as their British counterpart, describing and evaluating vessels so that ship owners, ship brokers, and insurance underwriters could more easily "assess commercial risk and negotiate marine insurance rates" (see Michael Palmer's discussion of Lloyd's Register of Shipping at http://www.mariners-l.freeserve.co.uk/ResLloydsRegister.htm).

"Information given [in the American shipping registers] includes [the name of each vessel, its captain, a rating,] gross tonnage, place and date of building, home port, owners or consignees (usually the former but with no indication of which), dimensions, and place and date of survey or inspection. … Needless to say, most of the vessels listed in American Lloyd's are not listed in the contemporary British Lloyd's. The schooners are mostly American or from the Maritime Provinces, but the other classes of vessels [ships, barks, brigs, and steamers] are of a wide variety of nationalities. Most were surveyed or inspected at American ports, especially New York, but occasionally the survey or inspection took place overseas…." (see E.K. Haviland, "Classification Society Registers from the Point of View of a Marine Historian,"The American Neptune, A Quarterly Journal of Maritime History, XXX, 1 (January 1970), p. 21 published by the Peabody Essex Museum, http://www.pem.org/neptune/default.htm).

Initial American efforts to publish shipping registers were fraught with controversy and competition. From 1857 through 1859, the short-lived New York Marine Register was published in New York City by R.C. Root, Anthony & Co. Thomas D. Taylor, Richard T. Hartshorne, and John F.H. King compiled the contents of its first edition; they owned a three-fifths interest in the publication. R.C. Root, Anthony & Co. printed and distributed the new publication; they had a two-fifths interest (see Taylor, Hartshorne & King, "Facts Showing the Authorship of the New York Marine Register", New York, 1858). Financial and legal disputes arose almost immediately, so the Taylor, Hartshorne, & King partnership started a competing publication whose inaugural edition was dated 1858-9. They followed with volumes dated 1859, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, and 1865, all published by E. & G.W. Blunt.

By 1866 the Taylor, Hartshorne, & King partnership had dissolved, and Taylor began publishing American Lloyd's Universal (1866-1882?) on his own. The following year Hartshorne & King began publishing American Lloyd's Register of American and Foreign Shipping (1867-1883). Both new publications claimed to have been established in 1857 and each accused the other of misrepresentation and piracy. Nevertheless, the competing publications survived until 1882 or 1883 and helped create a unique and valuable tool for researching vessels (especially American vessels) extant between 1857 and the 1870s. While competing volumes from the same year are similar in format and content, they are by no means identical. Serious researchers may wish to compare data, since surveys or inspections of the same vessel may have occurred at different times and may have produced different results.

A table showing confirmed holdings of surviving copies of these early publications is presented below. Inspired by a similar table compiled by E.K. Haviland in 1970 and published on page 34 of The American Neptune (see citation above), the table below updates Haviland's information and lists additional volumes located by the compiler between March and November 2001. The compiler has personally seen each volume listed below, except the five volumes at The Mariners' Museum Library and Archives in Newport News, VA (designated "M" in the table). Probably because of the similarity of titles and the scarcity of copies, most cataloguers have assigned a single call number to American Lloyd's, making no distinction between competing publishers and often including New York Marine Register as an earlier title of the same publication. By viewing each volume personally, the compiler has been able to sort out which volume was published in which year under which title by which publisher. Copying several pages from each volume and comparing them with identical pages in original volumes in each library, archive, and collection has minimized the likelihood of errors in the table. Where only a single volume is shown (1857, 1872, 1876, 1878, 1882) no such comparison could be made, so the information presented should be considered less reliable.

The compiler has several goals in presenting this information. First, he hopes cataloguers at each of the facilities listed below will be inspired to update and correct their electronic and card catalogues as necessary. Second, he hopes readers will inform him of holdings that are not listed below, including those that are not located in the U.S., so that he may update this table. And finally, he hopes researchers of American vessels will spend less time seeking these elusive sources of information and more time using them to do research.

TABLE OF CONFIRMED HOLDINGS IN U.S. LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES, AND COLLECTIONS
Compiled during 2001 by Gary Knecht, knechtgary@aol.com.
 

Table Footnotes

*         Complete titles, title variations, publishers, and years of publication are presented below – at the end of the "Notes"
           section.

* *      Partial copy only, created on a copy machine. The partial copy in San Francisco ("J") consists of pages 340-708
           (steamers and side-wheelers only – no sail vessels). The copy in New York ("S") consists of pages 13-129 (ships and
           barks only – no brigs, schooners, steamers, or side-wheelers).

***     In 1868 the U.S. government began publishing an annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States With the
           Official Numbers and Signal Letters Awarded Them by the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics (U.S. Treasury
           Department, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office). While data is limited to vessels sailing under the U.S. flag
           and "List…" is not a register, per se, it does give the names of vessels as well as rigging, horsepower, tonnage, and
           homeport. "List…" can be helpful in confirming when vessels were extant and where they were home-ported. This is an
           annual publication that continues today.

****   By 1869 the American Shipmasters' Association, later American Bureau of Shipping, had grown tired of the squabbling
           between the American Lloyd's publishers, so it began publishing Record of American and Foreign Shipping. This
           became an annual publication, similar in content and format to American Lloyd's, which continues today as Record of
           the American Bureau of Shipping (since 1933). In 1884 the American Shipmasters' Association purchased the
           goodwill and title of American Lloyd's Universal. Ever since, the frontispiece of Record… has carried a small subtitle,
           "American Lloyds". This practice was discontinued in January 2002.

*****  Copies have not yet been located for these years. It is unlikely any title was published in 1860; American Lloyd's
            Universal probably ceased publication in 1882, but missing volumes from other years (1871, 1873, 1877, 1879,
            1880, and 1881) may eventually be located; American Lloyd's Register probably did not begin publication until 1867.
            The compiler of this list would greatly appreciate information about missing volumes as well as corrections and
            additions to this table. Please email him at knechtgary@aol.com.

Links to Libraries, Archives, and Collections in the United States

B = G.W. Blunt White Library, Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT [10 volumes]
http://www.mysticseaport.org/library/blunt.library.html

C = Library of Congress, Washington, DC [20 volumes]
http://www.lcweb.loc.gov/

D = Stephen Phillips Memorial Library, Penobscot Marine Museum, Searsport, ME [9 volumes from R.B. Applebee's collection]
http://www.penobscotmarinemuseum.org/

E = Navy Department Library, Navy Historical Center, Washington, DC [10 volumes]
http://www.history.navy.mil/library

F = Maine Maritime Museum, Bath, ME [4 volumes]
http://www.bathmaine.com/

J = J. Porter Shaw Library, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, CA [6½ volumes]
http://www.nps.gov/safr/local/lib/libtop.html/ or, if server is not working, call 415-556-9870

K = Nutting Memorial Library, Maine Maritime Academy, Castine, ME [1 volume]
http://bell.mma.edu/~library/

M = The Mariners' Museum Library and Archives, Newport News, VA [5 volumes]
http://www.mariner.org/

N = U.S. National Archives, Washington, DC [13 volumes]
http://www.nara.gov/

P = Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA [19 volumes]
http://www.pem.org/

R = Maine State Museum, Augusta, ME [2 volumes from Allie Ryan's collection]
http://www.state.me.us/museum/homepage.asp

S = Melville Library, South Street Seaport Museum, New York, NY [1½ volumes]
 http://www.southstseaport.org/

W = The New York Historical Society Library [3 volumes]
http://www.nyhistory.org/

Y = Science, Industry and Business Library, New York Public Library [7 volumes; 6 of which are on microfilm]
http://nypl.org/research/sibl/index.html

Notes

1. The above table does not include libraries, archives, and collections that have only one volume, unless that volume is unique. The Nutting Memorial Library at the Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, ME ("K") is included because it has the only known volume of American Lloyd's Universal Standard Record of Shipping with "Twenty third Volume" and "1878" printed on its title page. However the cover (rebound) dates the volume as "1879." Since there are no other known copies of American Lloyd's Universal Standard Record of Shipping from 1877 through 1881, it is difficult to assign a date to this volume with total confidence. Furthermore, the microfilmed volume dated 1882 at the Science, Industry and Business Library of the New York Public Library ("Y") has "Twenty-sixth Volume" and "[1]882" on its title page. Hopefully additional volumes will surface to clarify this part of American Lloyd's Universal's publication history.

2. Single volumes (not seen by the compiler) can reportedly be found at the following libraries: 1864 American Lloyds' Registry at San Francisco Public Library; 1870 American Lloyd's Universal Standard Record of Shipping at Louisiana State University Library; 1873 American Lloyd's Register of American and Foreign Shipping at Yale University Library; 1876 American Lloyd's Register of American and Foreign Shipping at Princeton University Library; and 1881 The Original American Lloyd's Register of American and Foreign Shipping at Duke University Library.

3. Several institutions that were contacted in 2001 reported having no copies of American Lloyd's in their collections. The American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, MA has no copies of American Lloyd's according to Marie Lamoureux (mlamoureux@mwa.org). Nor does SUNY Maritime College according to Jane Brodsky Fitzpatrick (jfitzpatrick@sunymaritime.edu). Nor does the SSHSA Collection at University of Baltimore Library according to Giselle Haitsuka (ghaitsuka@ubmail.ubalt.edu). Nor does the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, PA according to Megan Fraser (mfraser@indsm.org). Nor does American Bureau of Shipping in Houston, TX according to Veronica Arman (VArman@eagle.org).

4. In 1970 E.K. Haviland compiled a table (published on page 34 of The American Neptune – see citation above) that said the American Bureau of Shipping (formerly headquartered in New York City) owned copies of the New York Marine Register from 1857, 1858, and 1859. When contacted in June 2001 at its "new" headquarters in Houston, ABS's Veronica Arman said that ABS did not have these volumes. When asked in January 2002 what became of them, Stewart Wade, ABS vice president, confirmed that the New York Marine Registers were definitely not in Houston, and "if by any chance we missed them in the New York office they will now be part of the WTC rubble. We lost everything from our office there including all the historical copies of our own Bulletin newsletter going back to the 1920s."

"AMERICAN LLOYD'S" TITLES, TITLE VARIATIONS, PUBLISHERS, AND YEARS OF PUBLICATION
Compiled during 2001 by Gary Knecht, knechtgary@aol.com.

I have identified four distinct publications that are often catalogued as if they were a single serial publication (or a book), or at most two publications, and are often assumed to be interchangeable. They are, in fact, competing publications that should be separately catalogued. I suggest the following groupings:

Title #1. New York Marine Register (1857-1859)
            New York Marine Register: A Standard Of Classification Of American Vessels, and of Such Other Vessels as Visit
            American Ports. (1857-1858)
             R.C. Root, Anthony & Co., Stationers and Printers [in 1857, 1858]
            New York Marine Register for 1859: A Standard of Classification of American Vessels, and of Such Other Vessels
            as Visit American Ports. (1859)
             R.C. Root, Anthony & Co., No. 16 Nassau Street [in 1859]

Title #2. American Lloyds’ Registry of American and Foreign Shipping (1858-1865)
            New York Marine Register: or, American Lloyds, A Standard of Classification of American Vessels, and Foreign
            Vessels visiting American Ports. (1858-9)
             Compilers and Publishers: Thos. D. Taylor, Rich’d T. Hartshorne, John F.H. King [in 1858-9]
            American Lloyds’ Registry of American and Foreign Shipping (1859-1864)
            American Lloyd’s Registry of American and Foreign Shipping (1865)
             Published by E. & G.W. Blunt [in 1859, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865]
             © Taylor, Hartshorne, King [in 1858-9, 1859, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865]

Title #3. American Lloyd’s Universal (1866- 1882?)
            Lloyd’s Universal American Register of Shipping (1866)
             also American Lloyd’s Universal Register of Shipping (1866)
             Published by Thos. D. Taylor [in 1866]
            American Lloyd’s Universal Register of Shipping (1867-1869)
             Thos. D. Taylor, Prop’r [in 1867]
             Published by Thos. D. Taylor [in 1868, 1869]
            American Lloyd’s Universal Standard Record of Shipping (1870-1882?)
             Published by Thos. D. Taylor [in 1870, 1872]
             Wm. M. Taylor, Book and Job Printer [in 1874, 1875]
             Van Fleet, Printer [in 1876]
             Printed by Howard Lockwood [in 1878]
             Lockwood Press [in 1882]

Title #4. American Lloyd’s Register of American and Foreign Shipping (1867-1883)
            American Lloyd’s Register of American and Foreign Shipping (1867-1877)
             also United States Lloyd’s Register of American and Foreign Shipping (1868)
             Published by Richard T. Hartshorne and John F.H. King [in 1867, 1868, 1869, 1870]
             Compiled by Richard T. Hartshorne and John F.H. King [in 1871, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877]
            The Original American Lloyd’s Register of American and Foreign Shipping (1878-1883)
             Compiled and Published by Capt. Richard T. Hartshorne, Proprietor [in 1878]
             Compiled and Published by Capt. Richard T. Hartshorne, assisted by Capt. H.F.A. Meyers and C. Fred’k A.
             Salter [in 1879]
             Compiled and Published by Capt. H.F.A. Meyers and C. Frederick A. Salter [in 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883]
 

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