The records were transferred to the Museum by arrangement with the Admiralty in 1938. They consist of 5,205 volumes, 1673 to 1809. In some cases captains' logs have been bound with those of lieutenants, but they are usually duplicates of those at the Public Record Office, which holds the series of captains' and masters' logs for this period and ships' logs from 1799. Some expense accounts for paper and ticket books are also bound in with the logs. Although this is a very full series of records it is not always certain that a log will exist for a particular commission; a detailed index of the logs by ship is kept in the Manuscripts Section.