While many are familiar with Lloyd’s Register of Shipping and the products of some of the other major international classification societies, most of these organizations were not very active in classifying vessels on the Great Lakes. What follows are some of the regional organizations that were active on the Lakes who issued one or more registers to assist insurance companies and their agents in assessing marine risks and associated premiums. They supply some of the same information that appears in the official lists and the business directories, but sometimes include an array of additional data.
1854: Register of British Shipping, Inland Waters (The origins of this list are uncertain, but the coverage is strictly on the Canadian side of the Lakes)
Board of Lake Underwriters (and the Board of Marine Inspectors)
Association of Canadian Lake Underwriters
Inland Lloyds
- 1894
- 1895
- 1896
- 1907
- Other surviving volumes include 1882, 1884, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891
Inland Lloyds: Canadian Hulls
Great Lakes Register (1898-16), and later American Bureau of Shipping, Great Lakes Department (1917-1932)
Initially in connection with Bureau Veritas, and from 1917 with the American Bureau of Shipping
- 1900
- 1905
- 1908
- 1911
- 1912
- 1913
- 1914
- 1915
- 1916
- 1917
- 1920
- 1922
- 1923
- Other known surviving volumes include 1902, 1903, 1904, 1904, 1906, 1919
American Bureau of Shipping, Record (1869-)
Originally the American Shipmasters’ Association, Record of American and Foreign Shipping, the Record eventually included a significant number of American Great Lakes hulls along with some Canadian.