This category contains examples of various types of ships' papers and documents relating to the operation of merchant ships. There are examples of Charter Parties, including one of 1322 between Walter Giffard, master of the cog OUR LADY of Lyme and Sir Hugh de Berham for a freight of wine; the remainder are twentieth-century examples. The earliest example of a Bill of Lading is for the TRIPLE CROWN of Bristol, 1689; there are others from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Among the examples of Bills of Sale of ships and shares of ships is one for the Dutch East India Company ship DEHELDWOITEMADE, sold to James Mather, a London merchant, 1782; and also one for the SPECULATOR, a French prize, formerly LE CARME,sold in 1810. Examples of documents relating to insurance include a Statement of General Average for the POLLY AND EMILY made after she had been damaged in a gale in 1895. There are also Muster Rolls and Articles of Agreement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Related Material entry no.13); Bills of Health, nineteenth and twentieth centuries; Safe Conducts, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; and various nineteenth-century passenger documents and papers relating to wreck and salvage, including an order issued by Sir Cyril Wyche (1632-1707) and Sir Henry Capel (d.1696), Lord Justices of iIeland, for the arrest of the pilot od the wrecked TALBOT pink, 1695.

Administrative / biographical background
Merchant Shipping: Administration - ships' documents