WWII Merchant Marine Records: Archives, DD-214s, and Requests

WWII Merchant Marine records are held across three National Archives locations and the U.S. Coast Guard’s National Maritime Center, with no single file per mariner. Where you write depends on what you need: personnel and licensing files sit at the National Archives at St. Louis, ship logs and War Shipping Administration files sit in Washington and College Park, and applications for a DD-214 or proof of veteran status go to the National Maritime Center.

Why the Records Are Scattered

Merchant mariners were classified as civilians during the war, even though they operated under the War Shipping Administration and carried troops and supplies through combat zones.¹ Because they were not part of a military branch, their paperwork was never centralized the way Army or Navy files were. Records were kept by the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation, by the Coast Guard (which took over merchant marine oversight in 1942), by the War Shipping Administration, and by various port authorities. There was no single system issuing discharge papers, which is why families often find nothing that looks like the discharge documents a soldier or sailor would have brought home.

Which Archive Holds What

Three federal repositories hold the bulk of surviving records, divided roughly by date and record type.

National Archives at St. Louis: Personnel and Licensing Files

For most family researchers, St. Louis is the first stop. It holds the Merchant Marine Licensing Files (Record Group 26, Records of the U.S. Coast Guard) covering merchant seamen licensed through 1967. The collection opened to the public on December 2, 2019, and includes photographs, ID cards, logbook entries, names, addresses, birth details, license numbers, vessel names, “Z” identification numbers, and discharge information.² Also at St. Louis: records of licenses issued to merchant marine officers from 1910 to 1946 and records of deceased and war casualty seamen from 1937 to 1950.³

Files can be viewed onsite in the St. Louis Research Room or requested offsite for reproduction fees. One boundary to note: St. Louis does not issue DD-214s or process benefit claims. Those requests get referred to the Coast Guard’s National Maritime Center.²

National Archives in Washington, DC (Archives I): Pre-1942 Personnel and Logbooks

Archives I holds Record Group 41, the records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation, covering primarily 1916 to 1942 — the period before the Coast Guard assumed merchant marine oversight. That includes personnel records of recruits (1918–1942), records relating to discharges (1918–1942), and applications for Seamen’s Protection Certificates (1916–1940).³ A finding aid sits in the research consultation room, and the Archives I Reference Branch takes email queries at archives1reference@nara.gov.

Archives I also holds merchant vessel logbooks from 1872 to 1941, which record crew names and ratings, voyage dates and destinations, births, deaths, illnesses, and disciplinary actions. Occasionally the signed shipping articles (the labor contract between a mariner and the vessel) are filed alongside the logbook.⁴

National Archives at College Park (Archives II): Ship Logs and Voyage Records

College Park is where you go to reconstruct a specific vessel’s wartime service. Record Group 178 contains merchant marine ship logs from 1918 to 1941, arranged numerically (1 through 122,684) and indexed by vessel name; the series includes chief officers’, engineers’, deck, and engine room logs.⁵ Record Group 248 holds the administrative records of the War Shipping Administration, 1941 to 1950, including general orders, ship control and operations files, maritime labor dispute decisions, and records of the Merchant Marine Medal Awards Committee.⁶ These are institutional rather than individual files, but they can fill in a mariner’s service by documenting the vessels and voyages involved.

Two Navy collections at College Park round out the picture. Record Group 24 (Bureau of Naval Personnel) includes Armed Guard voyage reports from 1943 to 1945, written by the Naval officers assigned to protect merchant ships. Record Group 38 (Tenth Fleet) has movement report cards from 1939 to 1945, listing each merchant ship’s ports of call, convoy designations, and voyage endpoints.⁷

Getting a DD-214 for a WWII Merchant Mariner

WWII Merchant Mariners and their surviving families can obtain a DD Form 214 (Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty) or DD Form 1300 (Report of Casualty) through the Coast Guard’s National Maritime Center. The application is DD Form 2168, designed for members of civilian groups certified as having performed active duty under Public Law 95-202.⁸

To qualify, the mariner must have served between December 7, 1941, and December 31, 1946, on a vessel operated by the War Shipping Administration or the Office of Defense Transportation that served the Armed Forces, in waters other than inland waterways, the Great Lakes, or U.S. lakes, bays, and harbors.⁸ The applicant carries the burden of proving membership in the qualifying group, so attach every scrap of supporting documentation you have: separation certificates, identification cards, contracts, employment records, and pay vouchers.⁹

A living mariner submits the form directly. A third-party request requires a death certificate for a deceased mariner, or a power of attorney, doctor’s letter of incapacitation, or the mariner’s written consent.¹⁰ For service between August 16, 1945, and December 31, 1946, a $30 processing fee applies, payable by check or money order to the U.S. Treasury.⁸

Two important limits. Training time with the U.S. Maritime Service does not count as evidence of oceangoing service for a DD-214. And the Coast Guard is only authorized to issue discharge documents for WWII-era service; no current legislation permits DD-214 issuance for merchant mariners who served in Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, or later conflicts.¹⁰

Two exceptions to the routing. If the mariner served on a vessel operated by the Army Transport Service, apply instead to the U.S. Army Human Resources Command at Fort Knox, Kentucky. For Navy Transport Service vessels, apply to the U.S. Navy Personnel Command in Millington, Tennessee.¹⁰

Requesting Other Individual Service Records

For personnel files and general service records that aren’t a DD-214, the National Maritime Center is still the primary contact. The NMC uses a correspondence request form (MCP-FM-NMC4-84) and aims to respond within 30 days, though files may need to be pulled from other storage facilities, which can add time.¹¹

Under the Privacy Act, requesters must be U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents; other requests are processed under the Freedom of Information Act. Third-party requests require authorization from the mariner, and a request on behalf of a deceased mariner requires proof of death such as a death certificate.¹²

The 1973 NPRC Fire Did Not Destroy These Records

Families researching WWII service often hear that everything burned in the 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. That fire destroyed roughly 16 to 18 million Official Military Personnel Files, including about 80 percent of Army records for personnel discharged between November 1912 and January 1960 and 75 percent of certain Air Force records discharged between September 1947 and January 1964.¹³ Merchant Marine records, however, were maintained separately, by the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation rather than by NPRC, and the official accounts of the fire do not identify Merchant Marine records as among those destroyed.¹⁴

Online Tools That Help

Most original Merchant Marine records are not digitized, but several online resources can help you locate a mariner or narrow a request before writing to an archive.

The National Archives Online Catalog has searchable descriptions for specific record series, including the officer licensing records (1910–1946) and the deceased and war casualty seamen records (1937–1950) held at St. Louis.³
Ancestry.com hosts U.S. Merchant Marine applications for officer licensing from 1914 to 1949.¹⁵
American Merchant Marine at War (usmm.org), a privately maintained site the National Archives itself cites, has alphabetical casualty lists with names, ships, dates, and positions; lists of prisoners of war; names of mariners buried in national cemeteries overseas; rosters of Maritime Commission ships; and procedural guides. The site holds no original records; it points to the agencies that do.³¹⁶
Ancestry.com and Fold3 are available onsite at National Archives facilities at no charge.⁶

If the Mariner Served Under the British Flag

If your mariner served on British-flagged vessels, the records are in the UK’s National Archives at Kew, not the U.S. system. The key series are BT 381 (logbooks and crew agreements, 1939–1946, searchable by ship’s official number), BT 382 (the Central Register of Seamen, 1941–1972), and BT 390 (merchant seamen who served on Royal Navy ships).¹⁷ Kew holds 100 percent of crew agreements and crew lists from 1939 to 1950. The Central Index Register (1918–1941) is on Findmypast, and Ancestry hosts the Shipping and Seamen Second World War Rolls of Honour listing those who died or were declared missing.¹⁸

1
Maritime Administration. Maritime Administration’s First 100 Years
2
National Archives. Merchant Marine Records Document Maritime Service
3
National Archives. Merchant Marine Personnel Records
4
National Archives. Merchant Vessel Logbooks
5
National Archives. Merchant Vessel Logbooks at Archives II
6
National Archives. Records of the War Shipping Administration
7
Maritime Administration. United States Merchant Marine Research Guide
8
U.S. Coast Guard. NMC Record Request
9
Department of Defense. DD Form 2168
10
U.S. Coast Guard. WWII Veteran FAQ
11
U.S. Coast Guard. NMC Records Requests FAQ
12
U.S. Coast Guard. NMC Correspondence Request Form
13
National Archives. The 1973 Fire, National Personnel Records Center
14
Department of Veterans Affairs. Reconstruct Military Service Records
15
Lisa Louise Cooke. Merchant Marine Records
16
American Merchant Marine at War. USMM.org Homepage
17
The National Archives (UK). Historical Records Information
18
The National Archives (UK). Merchant Seamen Serving Since 1918