Merchant Shipping

[trian]

My 3x gr grandfather was in the British Merchant Service during the mid to late 1800's.  I have obtained his death certificate which tells me he died on a ship in 1887. 
Is anyone able to advise me where I may find information regarding Merchant Ships during that time.  I have looked at the obvious sites, but have not had any luck.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks Trish

[jorose]

If you just want to find out about the movements of the ship, Lloyd's List would be the place to look - copies of these are held in various places -
http://www.mariners-l.co.uk/ResLloydsList.html

The other info would be the crew agreement and official log for the ship - his death should be mentioned in the log.  The problem is that the crew agreements are scattered about - 70% of them are actually now held in Newfoundland!  Do you have the name, and also hopefully the official number, of the ship he was on at the time?

http://www.mun.ca/mha/holdings/searchcombinedcrews.php - if you can find the official number you can check here and it will tell you where the crew agreement is held for that particular ship.

[trian]

Thank you for your help.  I will check these sites.