INTRODUCTION

5 April 2023 - This ‘Research Help’ page will provide links to extensive instructions on how to use ShipIndex.org, and other resources, for doing maritime history research. It’s being launched today, April 5, 2023, with limited information, but more content will be added over time. If you have questions about how to do certain types of maritime history research, please share them at comments [at] shipindex [dot] org, and we’ll try to incorporate those into the various text and videos that follow. 

Why do maritime history research? Who is it for? To me, maritime history is relevant in innumerable areas. Of course, if you're researching the history of a particular vessel, or of a particular port, or perhaps of an ocean, there's much that's relevant about maritime history. But the same is true if you're researching an individual, or a local area, or the transmission of ideas over time, or an infinite number of other areas. Each one has places where maritime history research can be beneficial, and in many ways, finding out more about vessels can help us learn more about people, about places, about the spread of ideas, about the development of cities or regions, and much, much more.

I hope the following Research Guides will be helpful to you in learning how to do your own research in maritime history and in learning more about ships.

INTRODUCTION TO SHIPINDEX.ORG -- This first Research Guide gives you an overview of how to do basic searches in ShipIndex.org. The video shows you ways of searching, and the text explains it, as well.

ADVANCED SEARCHING IN SHIPINDEX.ORG -- Our second Research Guide provides information on how to do more advanced searches in the ShipIndex.org database. With more than 3.2 million citations in the full database, advanced searching makes it possible to narrow down your research to the specific ships that matter the most to you.