Last month marked the completion of an ‘e-volunteer’ project between The National Maritime Museum and The National Archives to make details from all the surviving First World War merchant navy crew lists for 1915 searchable online for the first time. They contain the details for 39,000 voyages including the names and personal details of 750,000 seamen. As part of their commemorations for the WWI centenary, the National Maritime Museum and The National Archives began a four year long project in 2012, attracting the help of over 400 volunteers from as far afield as Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Canada, as well as locations a little closer to home in Italy, Ireland and the UK. They transcribed the 39,000 crew lists from electronic copies of the documents. The span of the volunteers demonstrates the international interest and significance of these documents in highlighting the vital contribution made by the Merchant Navy during the First World War. No records for individual merchan

Read More: Collaborative project unearths untold World War I Merchant Navy stories