Official Logs of British Merchants
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The Mercantile Marine Act of 1850 laid out rules requiring masters of all 
British registered ships to keep an Official Log Book for every voyage. 
The information contained in them varies and as you may expect, the 
earliest ones include much less information than 20th Century examples. 
In general, they will all include such information as births and deaths 
on board, illness, disciplinary issues, conduct of crew including notes 
of desertion, and anything else of significance taking place on board a 
ship during the period of the voyage or voyages.

Home Trade ships were to required to deposit the Log half-yearly, and
Foreign Trade ships after each return voyage, with the Registry of 
Shipping & Seamen.

These records begin to appear around 1852, but relatively few remain for 
the early years. Any containing a note of a birth, death or marriage at sea 
should have been retained but in reality that is no guarantee that you will 
find the one you need.

They are filed with the Agreements and Crew Lists, EXCEPT for the period 
1902-1919, when there is a separate class in BT165 at the Public Record 
Office in Kew, England containing all surviving logs from that period.

>>From 1835-1860, all Agreements and Crew Lists, and any surviving Logs
(1852-1860) will be held in BT98, Agreements & Crew Lists Series l, at 
the Public Record Office.

After 1861, the documents have been scattered between archives.

The PRO holds 10 percent of all records from 1861 -1938, and 1951 - 1989
in BT99, Agreements & Crew Lists Series ll. All Official Logs 1902-1919 
are held at the Public Record Office, as stated earlier.

The National Maritime Museum holds the remaining 90 percent for 
1861, 1862 and all for years ending in 5 except 1945, up to 1972.

Certain County Record Offices and other archives hold many papers for
vessels registered in ports within their area, for the years from 
1863-1912. Again, logs from 1902-1912 are at the Public Record Office.

The Registry of Shipping and Seamen holds all Agreements, Crew lists 
and Official Logs from 1939-1950, and those from 1990 to the present day.

>>From 1972 to 1989 all apart from those held at the PRO and those for
1975 and 1985 at the NMM, have been destroyed.

Almost all other records are held at the Maritime History Archive at the
Memorial University of Newfoundland for the period 1863-1972.

The main exception is the class of records in BT100 - documents relating to
celebrated ships... those vessels considered to be 'famous' such as the
Great Eastern, are held at the PRO in the class Agreements and Crew Lists,
Series lll - Celebrated Ships.

This is just an overview of the records and what you may find in them. To
find out in greater detail what may be available and what else you may be
able to search, try the PRO's web site