This group consists of those volumes that are primarily related to the documentation of ship arrivals and clearances. Along with the ship names and the date of sail, these volumes also often include the name of the ship's captain, the port sailing from or to, and occasionally, information on the ship's cargo and the owner.

The most complete set of records in terms of chronological coverage are contained in the two subgroup volumes entitled "Arrivals" and "Clearances." Both of these subgroups host nearly complete chronological coverage from 1875 to 1967. This group also contains an extensive run of indexes that provide an alphabetical guide according to ship name, running from 1921 to 1955, with only the few years missing that are listed.

The volumes in this group contain more in-depth information on the cargoes of the various ships--both for individual ships, and the cumulative ship totals for a given time period. The date range coverage for this group as a whole is not as complete as for the "Arrivals and Clearances" group. For individual ship cargoes, there are no outward coastwise manifests for 1875-1909, however, after this time period, outward manifest information can be found in the "Freights and Charters" volumes within this group. The most extensive cumulative documentation of ship cargoes can be found in the "Exports from Philadelphia" volumes that include coverage for much of the first two decades of the twentieth century.

The volumes within this group contain documentation of vessel sighting, as observed from the stations of the Philadelphia Maritime Exchange, along the Delaware Bay and River. Through the years of PME's existence, reporting stations occupied a number of different locations along the course of the river. For instance, a station was always present near the mouth of the river, but the location of that station moved over time, from a perch on the Delaware Breakwater, to a reporting station in Lewes, and finally to the position it occupies today at Cape Henlopen. At various times, other reporting station sites included Thurlow, Reedy Island, New Castle, Marcus Hook, Chester, and Delaware City.

In addition to ship sightings, other information can be found in at least some of these volumes, ranging from weather conditions, to vessel destination or port of origin, to the name of the vessel's master. Entries also typically include whether the vessel was inbound or outbound.

The most complete information in this group is provided by the three subgroups that consist of oversized volumes. These three subgroups, under the names of "Delaware Breakwater," "Delaware Bay and River News," and "Inward and Outward Bound--Delaware Bay," all contain the same basic information and are chronologically contiguous, thus providing nearly complete coverage for the years 1875-1967.

This group consists of those volumes pertaining to governmental regulation of the vessels. Found in this group are forty-nine years of records of the inside measurements of ships (admeasurement), necessary for computing the carrying volume of each vessel. The group also includes a relatively short record of licenses for ships under twenty tons that covers a four year period. Lastly, the group contains volumes that hold affidavits swearing to the captain's citizenship and a pledge that he will not defraud the government of revenue due it.