Family History – Passenger Lists – Ships

Information about the ships themselves

Brett, H. White wings

No passenger lists. Includes description and history of the ships and their voyages to New Zealand, 1840-1900. There are indexes in both volumes and a number of photographs.

Lloyd’s register of shipping

This is an annual publication but Christchurch City Libraries holds volumes for the years 1862-3, 1866 and 1870-1 only. It records details about all registered ships, including date and place of construction, tonnage, ownership, captain’s name and current location. Any name changes are also recorded.

Nicholson, I. H. Log of logs

This is an index to the location of known logs and diaries from immigrant ship voyages.

Plowman, P. Passenger ships of Australia and New Zealand

Information about and photographs of ships. V. 1 covers period 1876-1912, v.2 covers 1913-1980 and v. 3 (entitled Emigrant ships to luxury liners) covers 1945-1990.

Information about the voyages

Shipping to New Zealand, 1839 to 1889: Comber index

This is a copy of the card index compiled by Rev. William Charles Comber that is held at the Wellington Harbour Maritime Museum. It is a chronological list by date of departure of ships that came to New Zealand from England. It includes ships' names, owners, tonnages, captains, date and place of sailing and arrival. There is no passenger information.

Newspaper reports

The shipping columns of local newspapers often carry copies of the captain’s report on the voyage on the day or the day after the ship’s arrival in port. Such reports appear in both The Press and the Lyttelton times for ships arriving in Lyttelton. Sometimes the report will include a full list of passengers.

Nicholson, I.H. Log of logs

This is an index to the location of known logs and diaries from immigrant ship voyages.

A guide to firsthand shipboard accounts for voyages to New Zealand 1840-1900

This lists diaries of immigrants to New Zealand from Great Britain and Europe. It is arranged alphabetically by name of ship and indexed by name of diarist, date and port of arrival. It tells where each diary is held. Search instructions are given in the introduction.

Canterbury Pilgrims' and Early Settlers' Association. Early Christchurch and Canterbury: newspaper clippings. ca. 1923-1950

The newspaper clippings are from the Christchurch Star and The Press. There are newspaper photographs of ships, shipboard diaries and reminiscences.

R. Chapman. Name index to C.P.L. shipboard diaries

An inventory of shipboard diaries held in the Archives collection Tuakiri | Identity, Level 2, Tūranga: Blue Jacket (1866), British Empire (1864), Calypso (1876), Canterbury (1851), Castle Eden (1851-1852), Charlotte Jane (1850), Mermaid (1864), Merope (1874), Pleiades (1872), Randolph (1850), Simlah (1851), Somersetshire (1874-1875), White Rose (1875), Zealandia (1864-1865), Assaye (1874), Zealandia (1870), Clontarf (1859-60), Royal Stuart (1854-1855), Canterbury (1851), Tasmania (1852-1853), Harvest Home (1871), also Northampton (1874), Star of China (1875), Charlotte Jane (1850), Randolph (1850) in Early Christchurch and Canterbury: newspaper clippings ca 1923-1950.
[Use this resource with caution as there are inaccuracies. It has been retained as it gives useful highlights from the diaries. Search the catalogue for other shipboard diaries held].

Looking for a picture of the ship

There are no photographs for early vessels, although there may be a drawing or a painting. Many vessels looked very similar: confirm the specific rig of a vessel ("ketch", "barque", etc), to find a similar picture.

 

 

Vine Hall, N. J. Ships' pictures index, 1491-1991

Nick Vine Hall was also the founder of the Ship Picture Research Service, specialising in pictures of immigrant vessels over the last 200 years.

Brett, H. White wings

Nicholson, I. H. Log of logs

Plowman, P. Passenger ships of Australia and New Zealand