Nick Vine Hall in Australia operates a very noteworthy Web page
that will interest many genealogists around the world. His "Ships Picture
Research Service" attempts to help genealogists and historians worldwide
locate pictures of ships of many rigs, periods and nationalities. The Web site
provides researchers with an online vessel searching service and order form
to purchase the information that they have on record. The fees appear to be
modest.
The Ships Picture Research Service concentrates on immigrant vessels
that sailed the Seven Seas during the last two hundred years, as well as ships
on which family members might have served as crew in both war and peacetime.
Although pictures of vessels from a wide time period are available, there is
a strong emphasis on the years from 1787-1960, as this was the boom time of
emigration by sea from Europe to countries like Australia, New Zealand, America,
Canada, and South Africa. Obviously you cannot obtain photographs of ships from
the early 1800s and before, as photography had not yet been invented. However,
paintings do exist for many of these older ships.
One thing to note is that the online Ships Picture Research Service
does not supply photographic copies of ships' pictures. Instead, they tell you
where a picture or painting may be found. They send written reports to applicants
identifying the locations of ships' pictures, citing name/period matches with
the data they have supplied. In these reports, they list exact sources (published
and unpublished) of the pictures mentioned.
The Ships Picture Research Service presently has a database of
over two hundred thousand entries by name of vessel, which covers the period
825 to 2000 AD on an international basis. That database is being expanded as
the company collects more information. About half of the database can be searched
online. That is, you can determine whether or not a picture or painting exists
for a particular ship. However, the full database is not yet online. Searching
online only tells if whether or not information is available, you still have
to pay a fee to receive the details.
If you want to locate a ship, the service charges a search fee
of $20 Australian (approximately $10.33 in U.S. dollars) per search per ship.
The fee is payable at the time searches are requested. This price includes GST
(Goods and Services Tax) within Australia and airmail postage to all overseas
countries for the written reports.
The Ships Picture Research Service is operated by genealogist
and maritime historian, Nick Vine Hall, author of Tracing Your Family History
in Australia. He can also be heard on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s
radio network where he answers genealogical questions from listeners throughout
Australia.
For more information about the Ships Picture Research Service,
or to order a search yourself, go to: www.vinehall.com.au.
Dick Eastman Online
