My grandfather joined the British navy in 1911.  I have his service record and these have now been digitised and are available on Ancestry under UK military Royal Navy registers of seamen;s services 1853-1928.  The service record shows all ships he served on and the dates from and to along with other details.

Over the years I have managed to get some photos of ships he served on but not all of them so I was pleased when the book British Warships 1860-1906 – a photographic record by Nicholas Dingle arrived in the Research Centre.  Chapter 1 is a brief history of the Royal Navy 1815-1860 and chapter 2 is where it all starts.  It is possible that not all Royal Navy ships are covered in the text but a good many are and to top it all off, there are photos of many of them.  Therefore, you may be able to find details such as tonnage, speed, number of guns, date built, names of sister ships etc.

If you have an ancestor or relative who served in the Royal navy before 1906 then this book is worth looking at.  As for me, I found photos of another three ships to add to my collection – may your search be as fruitful or even more successful than mine.

Marie Hickey