The publication of this second volume of the Guide to the Records of Merseyside Maritime Museum completes the project begun in the early 1990s to provide a full and comprehensive survey of our collection of mercantile and shipping records. The first volume of the guide, published in 1995, summarised our holdings of records of official organisations connected to the history of the port of Liverpool, including the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board and shipping and trade organisations, as well as the Liverpool Statutory Registers of British Merchant Ships. It also included our substantial holdings of the records of Liverpool-based shipping companies.

The arrangement of the second volume is very similar to that of the first, since both have been designed to be used together. A cumulative index to both guides will be found at the end of the present volume. This book describes the collections omitted from the earlier work and covers a wide variety of subjects and records, including the collections relating to merchants, shipbuilding, slavery, emigration, maritime families, maritime charities and seafarers. With its concentration of personal and family archives, it covers the human dimension of the history of the port of Liverpool. A chapter has also been included on the special collections relating to two famous Liverpool-registered ships, Titanic and Lusitania, in response to the continuing popular interest in their tragic histories. Unfortunately, space does not permit the inclusion of every document or collection relating to other ships, or to seafarers or passengers, and researchers will need to consult the catalogues in the Maritime Archives and Library reading room for such records. For example, while it has not been possible to include every discharge certificate from our vast collection, the contents of the seafarers' chapter have been selected to provide a good cross-section of the careers and experiences of merchant seamen covered.

Similarly, the chapter on pictorial and audio records is only a summary of our holdings, and the collection of maps, charts and plans requires further arrangement and cataloguing. The reference library is described in its own chapter. A series of separate bibliographies have been published on emigration and slavery books. A short list of suggested reading has been included at the end of each chapter, and in many cases references to works on specific collections have been provided. It is recommended that researchers consult these published works before using the original archives.