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World War Two Merchant Shipping Movement Cards

You can search and download cards recording the movements of merchant ships during World War Two. Below are some points to help you understand the cards; use the links below to jump to the topics you are interested in.

Introduction

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In 1939 the Admiralty issued an instruction to the Board of Trade stating that masters of merchant vessels were not to enter destinations or ports of call on the ships’ logs or the crew lists and agreements, for reasons of security. However, it was still important to know and record the movements of merchant vessels and to this end the series of cards within BT 389 was commenced by the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen.

Searching the records

You can search for cards by:

Search tip: All the cards cover the Second World War period so leave the date range blank when searching.

What could these records help me to discover?

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The cards record the movements of both British registered and Allied vessels engaged in the war effort. Each set of cards records the name of the ship, any former name it had, its size (tonnage), to whom it was registered, the ship’s destination, date of arrival and sometimes ports of call. They also record any cargo carried on board. Importantly the cards also show if the ship was torpedoed, mined, damaged or sunk. They do not contain details of any passengers or crew and are concerned only with details of the ship.

How to interpret a record

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Below is the last movement card for the SS Athenia. On 1 September 1939 this passenger liner set sail from Glasgow with over 1400 passengers and crew aboard. She was torpedoed and shelled by the German U-boat U30 without warning, becoming the first merchant vessel casualty of World War Two. Her sinking caused outrage and Germany denied any involvement, even claiming a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign by Winston Churchill. In truth, the German U-boat fleet was under strict orders not to sink passenger ships, but the Commander of U30, Lt. Fritz Julius Lemp, had mistaken the liner for an auxiliary merchant cruiser. After realising his error, he kept the details of his actions secret for several weeks.

In the top left corner of the record is the ship name. If a ship had a former name this would be written in brackets. Owners and gross tonnage (G.T.) are recorded to the right of this.

From left to right, the six columns on the card will tell you:

Unfortunately there can be a lot of abbreviations used on the cards and no record exists as to what they mean.

Why can't I find an entry?

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This collection records the movements of ships ordinarily engaged in foreign going trade, and does not include small craft, vessels normally employed in home trade or vessels requisitioned for military service.

Not all changes in ships’ names are logged on the cards and in this case it will be necessary to obtain the ship’s official number (not usually recorded on these cards) and check against that number for all possible name changes. Miramar ship index can be useful for obtaining this information.

The card entries do not all start or end at the the same time. If there is no entry on a card for the early or later part of the war, check the crew lists and agreements in BT 99, BT 100 or BT 380 which may hold further details.

Further research

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You can download the records of Medals issued to Merchant Seamen from DocumentsOnline.

It is possible to find details of convoys in ADM 199/2184- 2194.

Survivors of lost merchant vessels were often called upon to make a statement about their experiences to the Admiralty, and these statements can be found in ADM 199/2130- 2148.

The Board of Trade recorded shipping casualties within series BT 347.

Details of individuals who died at sea can be found in BT 334.