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Ships and shipping

Find technical information, pictures, logs and histories of passenger and cargo ships.

Historical ships' movements

Logs, diaries, journals & letters

Log of logs is a catalogue of logs, journals, shipboard diaries, letters, and all forms of voyage narratives, 1788 to 1988, for Australia and New Zealand and surrounding oceans by Ian Nicholson in 3 volumes.

As the Library has collected many shipboard diaries and letters since Log of logs was published, it is also worth searching our Manuscripts collection via the catalogue:

Australia New Zealand UK mails  The primary focus of this two-volume work is to show how packet mails between the UK and Australia/New Zealand travelled and how such letters were rated to 1900. In doing that it includes a wealth of information on the shipping lines involved, the ships and the routes that they ran.

Ships' medical journals

Convict ships, medical journals - 1816 to 1867 lists medical journals for many convict ships and some emigrant ships that have been copied as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP). The AJCP microfilms referenced are available at the Library.

Note the reel and piece number references given in the Convict ships, medical journals website to help you quickly locate the correct reel and journal during your visit.

Newspapers

Newspapers are a good source of shipping information, especially arrivals and departures, as historic newspapers often include a shipping column, sometimes called shipping intelligence. For example, The Argus newspaper had a daily column that lists ships arriving and departing Melbourne, as well as some other shipping news, such as shipwrecks.

The Argus (1844-1956) and many other historic Australian newspapers are available online at the website Trove.  You can search newspapers on Trove using keywords such as ship, ships, arrivals, departures, shipwreck, or the name of the ship you are interested in. Advertisements for ship voyages, including the cost of fares, can also be found in historic newspapers. 

Apart from searching Australian newspapers, don't forget you may also find information in overseas newspapers published at or near the port of departure. A major source of information for departures from England is the London Times.  Full text and images from the London Times from 1785 to 1985 are available via the library database Times Digital Archive. This database is available to all visitors at the Library, and to Victorian registered users from home via the Newspaper eresources page.

For more information about finding shipping information in newspapers look at the guide How to find items in newspapers.

Newspaper shipping indexes

Use shipping indexes to find references to ships in newspapers.

Online

Ozships provides details of shipping movements for Australia and New Zealand from 1788 to 1968.

The lists are far from complete, but provide details that have not been readily available in other places, such as background information about the trip, where available.

Victorian Live Ships Map

The  Marine Traffic website provides information about current geographical positions of ships as well as other related information, whenever available, such as: 

  • ships’ details,
  • their destination,
  • estimated time of arrival,
  • photographs,
  • port traffic statistics,
  • weather conditions,
  • points of interest, etc.

Journal of Commerce of Victoria & Melbourne

The digitised Journal of commerce of Victoria & Melbourne (1858-1932) includes many references to ships and shipping movements, especially the 'fortnightly trade review column'.