As an aid to researchers, the links listed on all our individual Compass pages are just that, links to other websites, servers and
online data over which we have no editorial or administrative control.
As the years pass, some of the links which are listed on our pages become obsolete, changed by their owners or just deleted.
There is one last resort available to searchers: the Web's WAYBACK MACHINE.
If the 'lost' page was ever archived you can get to it by first going to http://wayback.archive.org/web/
then entering the entire url for the page you are looking for; for example:
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/md/statewide/ships/johnson.txt
or http://ftp.rootsweb.ancestry.com/pub/usgenweb/md/statewide/ships/patapsco.txt
If it was ever archived, you have to click on a date, (or the latest date), to view the page and see if it is worth saving on your computer.
Unfortunately for all of us searchers, if the page was never archived by 'wayback' then it is lost to all, until it is researched and posted again.
(this note was posted June 23, 2011)

Research for the original information found in the ISTG COMPASS was conducted by Harriet Rosch and the late Donna Jackson. The ISTG Compass began to guide researchers in September 1999, and is an invaluable research site for genealogists.
ISTG NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in whole or part in any format for presentation, distribution or profit by anyone without the express written consent of the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild. Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild is independently owned. Copyright 1998-2009