National Maritime Board, minutes.

In 1917 the Ministry of Shipping requested the Seafarers' Committee of the Employers' Association of the Port of Liverpool to advise them on all questions arising between owners and crews. This informal arrangement led to the establishment of the National Maritime Board to oversee the pay and conditions on ships. The Liverpool Association was not represented until 1919 because it disagreed with the Board's original constitution. The revised Board was composed of sixty shipowners' representatives and an equal number from the Trade Unions, with five panels for masters, navigating officers, engineer officers, sailors and firemen, and catering crew. The panels drew their representatives from district committees based on the major ports. The Board provided a national forum for the negotiation of pay and conditions in the shipping industry (taken from the Guide to the Records of Merseyside Maritime Museum, Vol. 1, p. 72). The collection contains minutes of the Board and its panels, 1939-1966, and minutes of the Liverpool District Sailors' and Firemen's Panel, 1920-1950. See attached list and D/GC.