<p>A challenge to the study of the nineteenth century Maritime World is the need for a larger body of evidence to study merchant shipping. To expand that base and offer additional sources of evidence this paper presents 200 ships extracted from the Lloyds’ Register of Shipping. These ships are explored through some of the only remaining components of their assemblage, and these are the records and surveys created throughout their working lives. This is then supported by a pair of archaeological examples where it is possible to integrate material remains with documentary evidence. The exploration of these sites and their associated record is enabled by theoretical tools drawn from scholarship of the Anthropocene that encourages recognition of the relational nature of ship finds. The evidence from these ships allows technological, legal, and sociological changes previously linked to major changes in Britain’s merchant fleet to be placed in context of a larger body of evidence.</p>