Ships can feature prominently in the history of British families because the British Empire built and owned about half of all ships afloat worldwide in 1900. Commercial ships carrying cargo or passengers are known as merchant ships, and it is common for genealogists to want to know the identity of a ship that their ancestor owned, sailed in, or even was wrecked upon. However, therein lies a potential problem. With so many ships afloat, how do you know if you’ve found the right one?
Different ships often shared the same or similar names.
Many readers will have enjoyed Deborah Pugh’s thoughtprovoking articleJuly 2023 p.44-45. However, the photograph of the that Deborah identified and researched is actually not the same vessel as that depicted in the photograph to which she refers (originally published in June 2021 p.43).
