4/2/2013 Boat Building/Model Making, Naval Interest, Merchant Marine Interest  Links checked 2/25/2016

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  http://www.shipindex.org/   

WE'VE FOUND THE MOTHER OF ALL SHIP/ HULL HISTORY SEARCH ENGINES. 

 Here is the promise of SHIPINDEX.ORG as stated in their own words:

   "If you're a historian, a model maker, a genealogist, a fact-checker, or anyone else who needs information about vessels, we'll get you where you need to go, and fast."

We tried their free demonstration and can vouch for that promise. Here is how they describe the status of their site at the moment: 

   "We have over 140,000 entries that are freely accessible, without subscribing or logging in anywhere. For $8 per month, you'll soon have access to well over two million additional citations, from hundreds of different resources -- books, magazines, CD-ROMs, websites, online databases, and more. Not only would it take hundreds of hours to search every resource here by hand, it's simply not possible: no single library has all of the resources included in this database. The time you'll save, searching hundreds of resources in just a few moments, is well worth the cost of two coffees and muffins.

We offer several subscription models, so you'll certainly find one that fits your needs. You can subscribe monthly -- and there's no minimum signup period -- or you can subscribe for set periods of time."

OK, if we read their site correctly you can try it free and if your ship of interest is within their 140,000 freely accessible entries you'll pull up one reference to your ship in print from one publication. If you subscribe, your search will cover a data base of over two million additional citations that may reference your ship in print. If you are a maritime research professional a year long subscription can be as little as $65 a year. If your's is a one time need a two week subscription can be as little as $6. Or you can go from month to month for $8 a month. There are a few more options but you get the picture. This ship cite search is of the quality of a WESTLAW legal citation search but instead of being charged by the minute you are charged by the two week or month period so you can revisit your cite list as often as you need to complete your task. Despite all of this this site is still a work in progress with future improvements planned:

"Our goal is to have a minimum of half a million entries in this database, and soon. Then we'll expand it beyond just English-language resources. We're gonna have cool and useful links to as much content as possible. Then we'll make the website spit a pancake out of your CD-ROM drive, and pour coffee from your headphone plug. And that's just the start!"

Being an organization that aspires to being THE PORTAL TO THE MARITIME WORLD and the ONLY SOURCE YOU NEED TO KNOW FOR ALL MANNER OF MARITIME INFORMATION, you can see how we would admire such ambition. After all we don't plan on getting where we're going by duplicating the work of others. When we find the best source of information or informational services we link you to them. So if you are looking for the newspaper article announcing the ship that Great Grandpa arrived, on we've just pointed you to the best resource. If you have no use for SHIPINDEX.ORG for five years after that then develop another research need but can remember the service you used. The link will be here at American Admiralty Books, your portal to the maritime world. We will have this link in our 'MEGA LINKS LOCKER AT THE TOP OF EVERY DAY'S STATION ID, in the BOAT BUILDING special interest page (which also contains model building references and links), and in our own index system. This is one of those prominent and broadly applicable links that we have singled out for inclusion in our MEGA LINKS system. The purpose of that system is to put the most commonly searched for links in plain view so that if you've come to our AAB site just to find a link you often won't hav eto search the site, most of the best are right on the first page, the "STATION IDENTIFICATION AND NOTICE BOARD the one with the sailing ship with the green sails.