Hampshire Naval Collection

Hampshire Naval Collection at Gosport Discovery Centre covers the Royal Navy and all aspects of British naval history including the Merchant Navy when there is an involvement in warfare. A substantial amount of material reflects the strong links between Hampshire, particularly Gosport, and the Navy. Past and present connections to the town are represented by sections on submarines, naval medicine, ordnance and naval aviation.

The majority of the books are for loan, but we have a number of books for reference and research use only. When using the library catalogue, check for the shelf mark NA which identifies a title held in the collection.

The reference sources include a run of Brassey's Naval Annual from 1888 and Jane's Fighting Ships from 1898, with a selection of Navy Lists from 1916 to 1938 and 1969 to date.

A dedicated CD-Rom terminal gives access to a range of disks with a naval interest including copies of Navy Lists for 1805 and 1914, Index to Mariner's Mirror - the Journal of the Society for Nautical Research -for all the issues from 1911 to 2000.

A complete set of Admiralty charts for the waters surrounding the United Kingdom is held and a Chartfinder index has been created in order to search for locations by name.

A run of unique Gosport editions of the Hampshire Telegraph & Post and Naval Chronicle from 1939 to 1956 has been professionally conserved and bound as part of the collection. Free online access to this newpaper for the period 1800 - 1900 is now available as part of the 19th century British newspapers resource.

The Collection includes a number of naval journals The main titles are

• Jane's Defence Weekly
• Journal of Navigation
• Journal of the Royal Naval Medical Service
• Mariners' Mirror
• Naval Architect
• Naval Engineers' Journal
• Navigation News
• Navy News
• Seafarer
• Seaways
• Warship Technology
• Warships

Websites

Naval Genealogy

• Casualty Lists of the Royal Navy and Dominion Navies
  Searchable by date, ship/unit and name
• National Maritime Museum:
  Family history research guide
• National Maritime Museum:
  All Research Guides
• Imperial War Museum:
  Tracing Royal Navy Ancestors
• The National Archives:
  Royal Navy Records
• The National Archives:
  Ratings' Service Records
• The National Archives:
  Royal Naval Seamen (1853 - 1923) Search and download service registers for seamen who joined the Royal Navy between 1853 and 1923.
• Veterans UK: Service records
  For those who served post 1923
• Trafalgar Ancestors Database
  Lists all those who fought at the Battle with their service histories

Merchant Marine during wartime

• Convoys and Merchant Navy in WWII

General interest

• Historic Photographs and Portraits
  national Maritime Museum collection
• Uniforms and Medals
  National Maritime Museum collection
• Maritime Quest
  Photographic history of the worlds' ships with alphabetical listing of all vessels