Ship Logs

A ship's log is the official record of the activities of a ship and the men who make up her crew. Included are courses steered and speed made good, port departures and arrivals, stores taken aboard or jettisoned, battles fought, other ships met, the arrivals and departures of people, the weather experienced, groundings, collisions, and anything else thought noteworthy.

Until the 1840s, a "day" in the log ran from noon to noon when the ship was at sea to conform with the fact that correct time was maintained by determining the precise instant of local apparent noon through noting the sun's high point in the sky.

Then, when chronometers -- very accurate timepieces -- became common in men-of-war, log-keeping was changed to conform to "civil" practice, i. e., midnight-to-midnight.

In the files that follow, all the early entries have been adjusted to reflect the later practice (midnight-to-midnight).

Log 1	17 Dec 1798 - 20 Oct 1800	Log 21	21 Apr - 12 May 1861
Log 2	16 Aug 1803 - 25 Feb 1804	Log 22	1 Mar 1865 - 14 Feb 1866
Log 3	17 Jun 1810 - 30 Jan 1812	Log 23	9 Apr - 14 Oct 1866
Log 4	10 Feb - 9 Nov 1812	Log 24	15 Oct 1866 - 31 Mar 1867
Log 5	31 Dec 1813 - 3 Apr 1814	Log 25	1 Apr - 15 Sep 1867
Log 6	18 Dec 1814 - 16 May 1815	Log 26	16 Sep - 18 Dec 1867
Log 7	11 Apr 1821 - 22 May 1824	Log 27	19 Dec 1867 - 29 Dec 1868
Log 8	29 Oct 1824 - 6 May 1826	Log 28	30 Dec 1868 - 14 Jan 1870
Log 9	13 Mar 1839 - 11 Jul 1841	Log 29	15 Jan 1870 - 16 Jan 1871
Log 10	4 Jul - 11 Nov 1841	Log 30	17 Jan - 26 Sep 1871
Log 11	22 Jun 1842 - 16 Feb 1843	Log 31	19 Jul 1877 - 19 Jan 1878
Log 12	15 Feb - 21 Nov 1843	Log 32	20 Jan - 25 Jul 1878
Log 13	25 Mar 1844 - 30 Nov 1845	Log 33	26 Jul 1878 - 31 Jan 1879
Log 14	1 Dec 1845 - 5 Oct 1846	Log 34	1 Feb - 15 Jul 1879
Log 15	9 Oct 1848 - 12 Oct 1849	Log 35	16 Jul 1879 - 21 Jan 1880
Log 16	13 Oct 1849 - 16 Jan 1851	Log 36	22 Jan - 24 Jul 1880
Log 17	22 Dec 1852 - 23 Dec 1853	Log 37	25 Jul 1880 - 4 Feb 1881
Log 18	24 Dec 1853 - 21 Sep 1854	Log 38	5 Feb - 21 Aug 1881
Log 19	22 Sep 1854 - 14 Jun 1855	Log 39	22 Aug - 14 Dec 1881
Log 20	1 - 30 Aug 1860	Log 40	1 Jul 1931 - 8 Jun 1934