Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Library blog. Since the early 1700s, Lloyd’s List has been an excellent go-to source for information regarding shipping news. Lloyd’s List – or rather, lists – cover a large swath of information, from updates on worldwide commercial ports to a tabulation of worldwide ship losses. That last particular tabulation is called Lloyd’s Casualty Week, and here at The Mariners’ Museum Library we have a collection of that exact series that stretches from July of 1950 up to the end of 2011. Inside, an amalgamation of all the recent ship casualties is listed on a weekly basis, from natural disasters to fires and even piracy. That last category is especially relevant nowadays, when the global pirating of merchant and personal vessels is more widely recognized in the media.

There’s something moving about being able to flip to a particular week and having all the incidents that occurred back then detailed and presented to you. It reads a bit like an official document, that’s exactly what it is: it records the data of what happened for those who want to assess it. If you are interested in measuring pirate attacks over the past half century, or any sort of maritime casualty really, Lloyd’s Casualty Week will prove an invaluable resource for your research. It’s currently available in the Library’s reading room if you want to access it.