Under British maritime law if any such event did take place aboard a British-registered ship after 1854, details had to be entered in the ship’s official log. Details of these events were copied by the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen into registers now held at The National Archives in BT158/1-4 covering 1854–1906; these were later copied to BT 334/117 covering the period up to 1972. A database transcript of this register is available online at The Ships' List, headed Marriages at Sea.
In that marriages performed by masters of British-registered ships were not legally valid, only a relatively small number of records exist.
The information found about the marriages performed at sea can include:
- Name of the ship and the official number
- Names of both parties
- Ages
- Condition, single widowed etc.
- Occupation
- Father’s name and occupation.
Recording of marriages began because the Mercantile Marine Act of 1850 required masters of vessels to keep a ship’s official Log to record all events on board - not just marriages but also births and deaths.
Logs were deposited with the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen after each foreign voyage, or half-yearly for home trade ships and begin to appear amongst the Merchant Navy records from 1852 onwards, however, many have not survived. It would seem that only those recording a birth or death generally exist.
In order to see if a logbook exists, you need to search series BT165 at The National Archives by ship’s name or number for official logs covering the period 1902-1920. There are over 40,000 merchant navy ships’ logs in this series. Earlier logbooks seem to be missing. They can be more of a ‘parish register’ for the ship, noting vital information about the crew and passengers including the occasional marriage.
There are also a small number of log books in series BT 98 and BT 99.
