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Records of Furness Withy and Co Ltd. For the parent company the records in the Museum include: ship files from the Naval Architect's Department, 1941 to 1961; building and service files from the Superintendent's Department, 1947 to 1964; movement books, 1946 to 1966; Charter Parties arranged by the Charter Department, 1917 to 1965; financial records, including wages and salaries, 1911 to 1958; one volume of commission accounts (mainly North American berths and the Danube), 1896 to 1952. There are papers for the three companies concerned in the South American trade: the Argentine Cargo Line Limited, minutes, 1908 to 1918; freight agreements, mainly 1908 to 1910 and printed reports, 1909 to 1917; the British and Argentine Steam Navigation Co Ltd, minutes, 1911 to 1934; meat contracts, 1914 to 1915; Furness-Houlder Argentine Lines, freight agreements (including Brazilian fruit and meat), 1914 to 1921; balance sheets and profit and loss accounts, 1940 to 1946. For the Prince Line (including the Rio Cape Line) there are reports of meetings, 1921 to 1949; files on oil prices and contracts, 1953 to 1958; and some notes on the Far East-U.S.A. Conference, 1919 to 1968. There are also the following records for other subsidiary companies: River Syndicate Ltd, minutes and accounts, 1920 to 1968; Compagnie Furness (France), accounts, 1923 to 1939; Furness (Montreal) Ltd, minutes, 1954 to 1964; Watson and Youell, cashbook for London, Bucharest and Galatz, 1919 to 1923. (Section 3: FWS/: 36ft: 1,097cm) Ships' Plans: the plans were presented in 1970. They consist mostly of prints of details of a few ships of the late 1940s and early 1950s. There are also two data books.

Collection includes a register of work 1746-1818, ships accounts 1715- 1803, log books including the NEWCASTLE (b 1859), LORD WARDEN (b 1862), DOVER CASTLE (b 1858) and WINDSOR CASTLE (b 1857), work book of Henry Green 1824, ship voyage accounts 1836-60 and other miscellaneous material.

Papers of Sir John Henslow including several examples of Henslow's drawings as a young man when he was draughtsman to Sir Thomas Slade. There is a list of the ships built under his supervision in Plymouth yard and family photographs, notes and other papers until 1878.

A small collection of loose papers relateing to the shipbuilding firm of John Cowl and Sons of Padstow.

The fifty-four letterbooks which have been acquired individually are predominantly naval, dating from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. The Napoleonic war period and the nineteenth century are most fully represented. Unless stated otherwise, it can be assumed that the items are copy letterbooks and not bound volumes of original letters. Of the six seventeenth-century letterboooks the largest is that of official correspondence of Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), 1662 to 1679, which also contains some shorthand in his own hand. (Some of these letters are reproduced in Helen Truesdell Heath, ed., The letters of Samuel Pepys and his family circle (Oxford), 1955)) There is a bound volume of 15 original letters and legal documents written by Sir Anthony Deane ([1638]-1721), shipbuilder and member of the Navy Board; the letters, dated from 1662 to 1679, are to a merchant, Sir Robert Clayton (1651-1704). For the same period there is a letterbook of George Monck, Duke of Albemarle (1608-1670), with some shorthand, written between 1665 and 1666 while he was joint Commander-in-Chief. Additionally, a small volume containing two letters by Monck, 1652 and 1663, includes some contemporary pamphlets and prints. A slim letterbook of Sir John Narbrough (1640-1688), when in command of the FORESIGHT, 1687 to 1688, consists of letters and reports written by him when recovering treasure from a Spanish wreck off Hispaniola. There is also an early eighteenth-century volume of copies of over a hundred letters written by James II to George Legge, Lord Dartmouth (q.v.) between 1679 and 1688. The earliest letterbook of the eighteenth century is that of Vice-Admiral John Baker (1660-1716), aboard the STIRLING CASTLE commanding in home waters and the Mediterranean, 1708 to 1709. A private letterbook of an officer who cannot be positively identified, kept between 1727 and 1731, includes a list of men killed and wounded at the siege of Gibraltar, 1727. It gives detailed dimensions of the ROSE at the same period, a description of travels in Italy, 1731, and of St John's, Newfoundland, 1732. Six letterbooks (some of which also contain orders) of Admiral Sir Piercy Brett (1709-1781) all relate to the Channel when Brett was in the LION, 1745 to 1746, the NORFOLK, 1757 to 1758, DEPTFORD, 1760, ST GEORGE, 1760 and the NEWARK, 1761. There is a small volume of in- and out-letters and orders to and from Prince William Henry (1765-1837). These date between 1786 and 1788 when the Prince was in command of the PEGASUS in home waters, 1786, in the West Indies from 1786 to 1787, and in Canada in 1787. Finally for this period is a letterbook of John Pearse, commander of H.E.I.C.S. EDGECOTE, 1747 to 1750. Thirty-one volumes relate to the Napoleonic Wars, the first of which is a bound volume of eighteen original letters, 1793 to 1804, from Admiral Collingwood (q.v.) to Sir Edward Blackett (d.1804). There follows a book of seven private original letters from Lord Mulgrave (1755-1831) to Collingwood , 1807 to 1809; a letterbook of Admiral George Berkeley (1753-1818) when in command on the coast of Portugal, 1809 to 1810; original letters from Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren (1753-1852) to Lord Melville (1771-1851), First Lord of the Admiralty, written mainly between 1812 and 1814 from Halifax, Nova Scotia, when he was Commander-in-Chief, North America ; a letterbook of John Jervis, Lord St Vincent for 1806 and 1807, when Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet, and a letterbook of Admiral Sir Charles Penrose (1759-1830), 1813 to 1814, when commanding the PORCUPINE. At this time the ship was off the coast of France, collaborating with the army under the Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), to whom a large number of the letters are addressed. Examples of volumes belonging to officers of lesser rank include that of Lieutenant (later Captain) Robert Ramsay (fl 1779-1815), in the EURYDICE, home waters and North America, 1807 to 1808, and in the MISTLETOE.

Papers of London and Rochester Trading Company Ltd., comprising the company's financial and business records including contract agreements for ship specifications for the building of company barges, bills of sale for various barges, general arrangement plans and miscellaneous material re: company's lease arrangements and other business records.

Papers of William Dundas Scott, consisting of thirty-five documents; these are mainly letters received by Scott between 1868 and 1870 and there is a letter from Hercules Linton, 1877.

Papers of the Shipbuilders and Repairers National Association. Including Shipbuilding Employers' Federation: these records include the minute book of the Executive Committee of the Federation of Ship-builders and Engineers, 1889 to 1898; the S.E.F. minute books, 1899 to 1965; a complete run of circulars, 1899 to 1965, and, slightly less complete, 1966 to 1967, the means by which the central body communicated to the local membership. The bulk of the collection, however, is to be found in the very large number of the S.E.F. files which have survived. They start in the 1930s, although many contain papers gathered before this date, for instance, 'Foremen and Under-foremen retaining union membership, 1920 to 1964'. These files touch on every aspect of labour relations, including wages, bonus payments, piecework rates, nightshift working, allowances, demarcation, apprenticeship, training and safety. In the files are correspondence, memoranda, statistical returns, minutes of meetings and agreements. A selection of the titles of the files gives an idea of the range of subjects: 'Temporary relaxation of existing customs and practices -- national agreement with Boilermakers' Society, 1940 to 1943'; 'District claims for payment of confined space allowance to skilled timeworkers, 1941 to 1967'; 'Complaints against foremen or chargehands by workpeople or unions, 1947 to 1952'; 'Painters, redleaders and cementers, claims for working with obnoxious paints, 1932 to 1953'. The S.E.F. also prepared labour statistics on a weekly and monthly basis, and a quarterly return submitted to the Ministry of Labour on numbers employed. These have been retained, 1936 to 1960; and there are strike returns, 1959 to 1967, 1972 to 1976, and accident statistics, 1963 to 1971.

Dry Dock Owners and Repairers Central Council: the records consist of minutes, 1910 to 1959; circulars, 1910 to 1956. As before, the main part of the collection is the great number of files relating to dry docking. Examples include, 'Dry Docks Tax Allowance', 1950 to 1963; dry dock facilities, 1954 to 1967; dry dock projects, 1953 to 1964. There are several on technical matters, such as those on T2 tankers, 1948 to 1952; on the gas freeing of tankers prior to dry docking, 1959 to 1973. There is also a series relating to the wartime Emergency Repairs Agreement, 1940 to 1946. Shipbuilding Conference: Private Meeting minute books, 1928 to 1945; circulars, 1928 to 1969. As the body within shipbuilding bearing responsibility for all commercial matters, the records of the Shipbuilding Conference and the Shipbuilding Board of the S.R.N.A., touch on almost every aspect of the trading and commercial activities of the industry, including relations with government, the Navy, and on every subject from the 'scrap and build scheme' of the British Shipping Act of 1935 to nationalization, 1974 to 1977. There are files on 'price improvement and tendering expenses schemes', 1935 to 1951; the Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organization, Maritime Safety Committee, 1966 to 1971; Lloyd's Technical Committee, 1956 to 1970; the Shipbuilding Advisory Committee, 1958 to 1960; the Shipbuilding Industry Board, 1965 to 1972; the British Ship Research Association, on whose management committee the shi

This class consists of sixteen documents relating to shipbuilding, eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. They include a description of the machine which steered the IPSWICH across the Atlantic after the rudder had been carried away, 1746; the agreement for the building of an East India Company ship, the PRESTON, 1798; a patent for improvement in side propellors for ocean and river vessels, 1865; and papers relating to Admiral Sir Percy Scott's (1853-1924) proposed battleship design, 1911.

Papers of William Stewart, consisting of letters to Sir William, 1879 to 1884, including those from the First Lord, William Henry Smith (1825-1891) and other private correspondents. His period in the Marlborough is represented by letters as well as a book of remarks on the discipline of the ship. There is a book entitled the 'Dimensions, cost etc. of H.M. Ships built under contract and in the Dockyards', 1860 to 1873. The collection also contains the proceedings of the Naval Brigade attached to the expeditionary force for the relief of Tokar in 1884 when Lieutenant Houston Stewart, Sir William's son, in command of the Right Half-Battery, was killed at the action of El Teb. A midshipman's log for the ARIADNE, Portsmouth, 1871, MINOTAUR, Channel Squadron, 1872, and NARCISSUS, West Indies, October 1872 to 1873, belonged to Lieutenant Houston Stewart. Finally there are a few letters written to Sir William's father, Sir Houston Stewart, between 1853 and 1854 when Sir Houston was Superintendent of Malta Dockyard.