The target market of the weekly paper is stated just below the masthead: "An Advertising Medium For The Shipping Interests, and For Grocers, Wine and Spirit Merchants, Druggists, Outfitters, Carpenters and Builders, Iron-Workers, Food-Contractors".
It includes the names and destinations of ships that had left Irish ports, and also provides name and origin of those that had arrived. In addition, shipping intelligence from around the world is listed, advising of ships that had completed longer voyages. Other than the columns dedicated to these matters, the four-page paper carries mainly British establishment news – wars, parliament and monarchy – although the adverts are predominantly Irish.
So far, all editions for 1871 have been uploaded to the database. The holding for this title will eventually span 1869 to 1872.
The Dublin Shipping and Mercantile Gazette has also joined FindMyPast's Irish newspaper collection where it is available as part of a FindMyPast Ireland or World subscription.