Hi Lizzie,
The crew agreements are at the Maritime History Archive, not the provincial archives. MHA have rotten hours, daytime only and they close for lunch so basically I can never get there even though I live in the same town. And yes, without a ship name it's tough. I had a bit of a stroke of luck to find my g-grandfather on the Rosebud. I've traced his travels to 1900 in South Africa, but so far no luck finding his next ship, so I feel your pain.
J.