What is happening with CLIP now?
Over the last few years, we have concentrated on making information on maritime records widely available, especially through this web site. We have:
  • set up this site, with finding aids for vessel and crew list details;
  • added data from sources such as the Irish National Archives, the Mercantile Navy List and Record Office catalogues;
  • developed software for transcription of Shipping Registers from images and made transcripts of the registers held at Manx National Heritage Library;
  • in collaboration with The National Archives, transferred the paper index to the crew lists in BT 99 to a database.
  • made the first complete index of official numbers for British registered ships, from the Appropriation Books held at the Registry of Shipping and Seamen, Cardiff.
  • worked with The National Archives to transcribe all the crew lists in BT 99 for 1881 and 1891.
Most of this data is available on the finding aids on this site.
Can you help with CLIP transcription?
Our present major project is crew list transcription using an on-line database, which can be accessed from anywhere via the internet and provides the first publicly available facility of this sort. We are using this tool to facilitate crew list transcription projects on a much larger scale than has been possible so far.
 
The data can be input directly from crew lists at record offices, or from images. We made a start with images from BT99 at The National Archives for 1881 and 1891 and this was completed in October 2009. We are now working on crew lists held at Devon County Record Office and Anglesey County Record Office.
 
We are also running projects to make transcriptions of the Mercantile Navy Lists, to provide registration details for ships which complement the data from the Appropriation Books.
 
To help with these projects, you just need a computer which has a CD/DVD reader and internet access, preferably broadband. Taking part is completely flexible - if you could make time available, we would be very glad to hear from you. Do please get in touch.
 
Working as a CLIP volunteer, you will be helping to make basic records widely available and we will, of course, fully acknowledge your help on this site and in any publication. Royalties which CLIP receives for data are used entirely to support the project so we are glad to make sure that our transcribers are not out-of-pocket through their participation in the project and to offer them benefits in kind such as copies of data or CDs whenever possible.
 
What next for CLIP?
We welcome comments and suggestions about how we can build on CLIP’s success. The general aim remains to make as much data as possible readily available, preferably over the internet.
 
The sort of projects we like to be involved in are:
  • collaborative projects like CLIP;
  • time-limited;
  • focussed on gathering and publishing data from maritime records of the same period, though not necessarily crew lists;
  • based on using information technology in a variety of ways, and
  • at least self-financing on a not-for-profit basis, though we wouldn’t be averse to profit-making ventures either!
Some ideas we’ve discussed are:
  • working on other maritime records such as shipping registers, fishing registers or newspaper shipping news;
  • digitising maritime records;
  • focussing on a single port, or an area (Wales or the Irish Sea, for example);
  • making the CLIP transcription software available.
We would particularly welcome any comments from CLIP volunteers, archivists, and anyone involved in maritime history. Do please give us your thoughts.