This website is part of the CodeTheCity 19: History + Data = Innovation and CodeTheCity 20: History and Culture events. It's very much a work in progress playground for extracting and presenting the historical vessel arrival information.
The source code for this dashboard is available on GitHub.
Aberdeen Harbour Arrival History
This site contains information about the arrival of vessels into Aberdeen harbour between 1914 and 1920. The data has been transcribed from harbour log books of the period.
Please read the Information page for details about the various assumptions that have been made about the data and any questions we are hoping the wider community can answer.
Transcription Progress
Records Transcribed
16982
Last update: 09 August 2020 10:31
Arrival Records
The transcribed arrival records for each year can be viewed via the following links:
On this day in history
Today in 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920
| Date | Weather |
|---|---|
| 09-08-1914 | Sunday 9th. Fine weather and smooth sea. |
| 09-08-1915 | Monday 9th. Fine weather but foggy. |
| 09-08-1916 | Wednesday 9th. Same weather Continues with thick fog. |
| 09-08-1917 | Thursday 9th. First part wind southerly latter wind northerly fresh, sky overcast and gloomy. |
Column Definitions
- Date
- The date the vessel arrived at Aberdeen harbour
- Vessel
- Name of the vessel that arrived on the date
- Number
- Entry number in the log book
- Registered Port
- The port, or country, in which the vessel was registered at
- Master
- The person or company in charge of running the vessel
- Registered Tonnage
- Net registered tonnage of the vessel arriving
- Port of Origin
- The port that the vessel sailed from to arrive at Aberdeen
- Cargo
- What the vessel was carrying
- Activity
- What activity the vessel was carrying out. Note: this is extracted from the source transcribed cargo.
- Checked
- Has the transcription been checked by a second person
Vessel Types
- HM Col
- Collier. Coal for ship bunkers, sometimes they carried general stores or goods
- HM Des
- Destroyer
- HM Tug
- Admiralty or hired tug
- HMGB
- Motor Gun Boat
- HDML
- Harbour defence motor launch
- HMAS
- Armed sloop
- HMBD
- Boom defence vessel. Trawlers, drifters and fishermen ideal for handling torpedo nets etc used in defence of port entrances and large capital ships
- HMC
- Collier. Coal for ship bunkers, sometimes they carried general stores or goods
- HMHS
- Hospital ship
- HML
- Mine layer
- HML
- Motor launch
- HMMB
- Motor boat
- HMML
- Mine layer
- HMMS
- Minesweeper
- HMO
- His Majesty’s Oiler. Fuel oil carrier
- HMP
- Patrol vessel
- HMQS
- Q Ship, used as decoy to engage U-boats, masqueraded as unarmed. When U-boat surfaced they could fight back.
- HMRT
- Rescue tug
- HMS
- His Majesty’s Ship. Regular naval vessel
- HMSL
- His Majesty’s Small Launch
- HMSML
- Small motor launch
- HMSS
- Submarine
- HMT
- Hired Military Transport
- HMTB
- Torpedo Boat
- HMTS
- Hired Military Transport (maybe mis-type in transcription)
- HMW
- His Majesty’s Whaler
- HMY
- Hired or requisitioned yacht