Late eighteenth-century merchant ships in war and peace

Abstract

This article assesses Lloyd’s Register as a source for late eighteenth-century maritime history by analysing the ships listed in the 1779 and 1790 volumes. The Registers turn out to a reasonably complete enumeration of the ships involved in the foreign trade of Britain and Ireland, but contain only a small share of ships in the coasting trade. The article analyses the names given to ships, their size and rigging, where they were constructed and how they were used. It also investigates the ships used as privateers and transports during the American Revolutionary War and the technical practices of sheathing and doubling. The distribution of ships by owner is discussed, as is the way in which the Registers classified ships.