Useful resources for Maritime Kent Research

Centre for Kent History and Heritage, Christ Church

The co-directors Dr Claire Bartram and Dr Sheila Sweetinburgh were both involved with Maritime Kent Through the Ages - Sheila was one of the editors. The centre supports research on all aspects of Kent’s history and has recently funded a PhD focussing on Kent’s maritime history. canterbury.ac.uk→

Society for Nautical Research

There are many articles relating to Kent in the Society’s journal The Mariner’s Mirror which are available online to members. We hope to get permission to reprint some of these on these pages. snr.org.uk→

British Commission for Maritime History

Information about courses and sources of funding for maritime history research as well as details of lecture programmes and online resources for research. maritimehistory.org.uk→

Chatham Historic Dockyard

Information about the history of the dockyard and visiting but also about the collections held at the dockyard for research. The main dockyard records are held at the National Archives and in the Caird Library at the National Maritime Museum. thedockyard.co.uk→

Kent Archives and Local History Service

There are many records relating to maritime heritage in the collections held by the county’s archive service. The collection of borough records is particularly rich with some for coastal boroughs dating back to the 12th century. Try searching using keywords such as ship, navy, sea etc and also for particular ports more generally. kentarchives.org.uk→

Medway Archives and Local Studies Centre

The centre holds many important records relating to the maritime history of the Medway area including those of the Medway Navigation Company 1740-1936 and the Medway Port Authority 1881-1996. medway.gov.uk→

Caird Library, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

The Caird Library and Archive holds many records relating to Kent’s maritime history including those of the various naval dockyards in Kent (Chatham, Woolwich, Deptford, Deal), Merchant Ship Crew Lists 1861-1935 and Masters/Mates Certificates 1857-1927 featuring many crew from Kent. A collection relating to Pollocks Shipbuilders of Faversham 1910-1970 should also be available soon containing details of the ships the firm built and the people who built them should be available early in the new year. See rmg.co.uk/collections/caird-library→

The Library is free to use and there is an online catalogue at rmg.co.uk/collections→

1915 Crew Lists Project

The site was produced by the National Maritime Project following a project to transcribe and index all the crew lists from 1915. Using the advanced search you can search for crew on board ships by their place of birth. Its worth checking for your town or village as there are many crew who were born in Kent and who worked on British merchant ships during the First World War. 1915crewlists.rmg.co.uk→

Trafalgar Ancestors database

This database was compiled from records held at the National Archives and covers everyone who served on a British ship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Using the advanced search you can search for crew on board ships by their place of birth - there are over 300 who were born in Kent so it’s worth checking to see if anyone from your area fought at Trafalgar. There are also references to the original sources if you want to find out more. nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors→

Merchant Fleet of Medieval and Tudor England, 1400–1580

The database compiled was compiled by Southampton University using data transcribed and indexed from customs accounts, navy payrolls and national ship surveys. You can search by ship name, master and owner but also by home port, voyage origin and voyage destination and there are many Kent ports, ships and crew featured. medievalandtudorships.org→

Tankerton blog

A blog post featuring the recently discovered wreck of a 16th century ship at Tankerton at theconversation.com→

Publications and articles

There are of course many articles relating to the county’s maritime heritage in the Society’s own publications Archaeologia Cantiana and the KAS Magazine. The best way to access the articles in Arch Cant is to look through the volumes online on our website for the general indexes here. These can then be downloaded and searched for specific keywords using the `find’ function (Ctrl F) and using keywords such as ports in Kent or more generally terms like `navy’ and `ship’.

Maritime Heritage Newsletter

Medieval New Romney: A Town shaped by Water by James Holman (Oxbow Books 2020) – CAT Occasional Papers No.12.

Maritime Kent Through the Ages edited by Stuart Bligh, Elizabeth Edwards and Sheila Sweetinburgh, Boydell 2021.