Vessel identity and inspections

Who a ship is and who runs it: IMO lookups, ownership and management registers, port state inspections and class records.

Who is this ship, who runs it, and has anyone inspected it lately? Start from the IMO number, because names, flags, MMSIs and call signs all change and the IMO number does not. Equasis and GISIS give the registered owner and the managers for free. The port state control databases give detention and deficiency histories. The class registers tell you whether a recognised society still stands behind the hull. Beneficial ownership, the person behind the one-ship company, takes the corporate records on the next page.

Equasis and GISIS need an account and log your searches to it. If you query many ships at once, our equasis-cli does it from the command line.

Identity and registration

  • Equasis · Free account · EMSA and a consortium of maritime administrations · Particulars, registered owner and managers, class, P&I cover and port state inspections for most merchant ships, and from 2026 a record of ship-to-ship transfers. The first stop for any vessel.
  • IMO GISIS · Free account · International Maritime Organization · The IMO’s own ship and company records: name and flag history, IMO company numbers and registered addresses. The public modules need a free IMO web account.
  • ITU MARS ship station search · Free · International Telecommunication Union · Looks up a ship by MMSI, call sign, name or distress-beacon identity and returns the administration that registered it. The quickest check that an MMSI matches a flag.
  • Ships IO · Paid (30-day free trial, from $19.99/yr, 2026-10) · ShipVault LLC, Hawaii · Crowd-sourced database of about 160,000 large ships with technical and commercial details, linked companies, yards and parts. Cheap enough for individuals, but check its claims against Equasis.
  • DNV Vessel Register · Free · DNV · Class status, surveys and certificates for ships classed by DNV.
  • ABS Record · Free · American Bureau of Shipping · Class records for ABS-classed ships.
  • ClassNK Register of Ships · Free · Nippon Kaiji Kyokai · Class records for the Japanese society’s large fleet.
  • Panama Maritime Authority · Free · Autoridad Marítima de Panamá · The world’s largest flag registry; its public pages hold registry notices and verification services.
  • Liberian Registry · Free · LISCR · Public vessel and certificate lookups for the Liberian flag.
  • Marshall Islands Registry · Free · International Registries, Inc. · Public information and lookups for the Marshall Islands flag.

Port state control

  • THETIS (Paris MoU) · Free · EMSA for the Paris MoU · Inspection and detention records for ships calling in Europe, Canada and Russia’s European ports.
  • Tokyo MoU APCIS · Free · Tokyo MoU · Asia-Pacific inspection records in near real time. The database is hosted in Vladivostok.
  • Indian Ocean MoU · Free · Indian Ocean MoU · Inspection and detention data for the Indian Ocean region.
  • Black Sea MoU · Free · Black Sea MoU · Inspection records for the Black Sea states. The public database is developed and hosted by the Russian Federation, and may not load from every network.
  • USCG PSIX · Free · US Coast Guard · Weekly snapshot of Coast Guard records: particulars, inspections, deficiencies and detentions for ships in US waters.

Photos and yachts

  • ShipSpotting · Free account · AirNav Systems · Dated, crowd-sourced ship photos, useful for confirming a hull, a livery or a name change. Browsing is free; uploading needs an account.
  • Superyachts.com Top 100 · Free · Superyachts.com Ltd · Rankings and owner searches for the largest yachts, useful in sanctions and asset-tracing work.

Last checked 2026-10-12.