Index to Royal Navy Ships 1698-1861, 1955-1956

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The index is arranged alphabetically by the names of the ships. The entries were typed on cards, with some extending to two cards. There are also a few handwritten cards and some typed entries have handwritten annotations.

Most of the entries contain the following details: the name of the ship, the name of the commander, the precise date range of the voyage, any changes in command, ports or places visited, and the Public Record Office references to the log or logs of the ship. The places visited are generally noted selectively and much more detail is provided if the ship spent long periods in Australian and New Zealand waters rather than just making a short visit. For instance, the entry for the sloop Bathurst in 1821-22 (Capt. P.P. King) lists 80 places visited, while the entry for HMS Beagle in 1831-36 (Capt. R. Fitzroy) lists 22 places visited. If a ship did not come within the AJCP area at all, only a few places are listed. Some entries are based on published reference works rather than ships' logs and in such cases they usually contain just a sentence or two about the voyage. Convict transports fall into this category.

Each card is marked with a tick or a cross. They were almost certainly added later, when the AJCP staff in London were preparing to microfilm ships' logs and other records. In 1958 the AJCP partners decided to extend the geographical coverage to include the Dutch East Indies, Malaya, the Philippines and other parts of South East Asia. One result of this decision was that the ticked entries include many ships of the Royal Navy's East Indies Station which sailed to Penang, Malacca, Batavia, Hong Kong, Manila and elsewhere, but which never visited Australia or New Zealand. In addition, some of the ships of the Pacific Station were mostly based on the west coast of Mexico, Peru and Chile and did not sail as far as the South West Pacific.

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