The LRF Heritage & Education Centre offers free access to a variety of resources useful for maritime archaeological research, available both online and upon enquiry.
Find out more by catching up with our webinar Shoreline: from dry-docks to shipwrecks.
Among the most valuable resources helping researchers in the identification of shipwrecks, the yearly Lloyd’s Register of Ships provides technical details of all sea-going vessels over 100 gross tons since 1874 (before then it only listed LR classed ships), while the Lloyd’s Register Casualty Returns, published quarterly since July 1890, contain the circumstances of their loss, including voyage and cargo details.
Adding to this wealth of information, documents, correspondence, and visual aids relative to LR classed ships can be accessed through the Ship Plans and Survey Reports collection. Explore a journey of digitisation in our online exhibition to see how we tackled this extensive collection, with more than 1.1 million items now available online. These resources, and more, can be explored on the web pages listed further down.
Henri Paasch’s From Keel to Truck: A Marine Dictionary in French, English & German incorporates descriptions of different rigs, structural diagrams, and equipment drawings, and it has been digitised to support archaeological research. Further research guidance is accessible through the HEC information sheets, a selection of the most relevant to this page is listed below.