Vessel Particulars

Vessel particulars are the descriptive registry record of a ship: identification (IMO number, MMSI, callsign), flag, ship type, tonnage (GT, DWT, net tonnage), dimensions (length overall, beam, depth, draught), year built, and ownership details (registered owner, manager, ISM manager, P&I club, classification society).

In Datadory's marine-transportation slice three sources carry them. VesselFinder Vessel Database and AIS Directory holds 868,504 vessel records across 258 flag registries, paginated across 43,426 HTML listing pages with detail pages pairing particulars against live AIS position and voyage data. MarineTraffic lists vessel particulars among its directory tags next to port calls and voyage forecast. IMO GISIS publishes member-state-reported "ship and company particulars" through its public modules.

The defining contrast is with the position stream: particulars change rarely (a rename, reflag or ownership transfer), which is why they anchor joins across movement data.

Without stable particulars, movement data cannot be joined over time. The IMO number survives flag and ownership changes, which makes it the key that holds a multi-year position archive together - buy position history without registry attributes and you cannot deduplicate renamed vessels.

Rights differ radically across the three sources. VesselFinder's terms forbid extracting content "using automated means (bots, scrapers, crawlers) except through authorized APIs" and bar free-tier users from systematically collecting, archiving or building datasets; MarineTraffic meters API calls as credits under Kpler commercial terms with content marked "Property of Kpler"; GISIS is free for informational use via member-state submissions but disclaims accuracy and completeness.

Provenance follows the same gradient: GISIS reflects what administrations reported, while platform directories compile from multiple channels - attribute conflicts are normal and need an arbitration rule.

1. Check identifier completeness. IMO number, MMSI and callsign should all be present; VesselFinder detail pages carry all three plus owner/manager contacts, which is what makes records joinable.

1. Count the fleet against known registries. VesselFinder reports 868,504 records across 258 flag registries and MarineTraffic is commonly cited at 600,000+ - ask any vendor for equivalents.

1. Verify the tonnage and dimension fields you need. GT, DWT, LOA, beam, draught and year built drive class and port-fit calculations; partial sets limit matching.

1. Read the extraction clauses before planning collection. VesselFinder's section 9 bars automated extraction outside authorized APIs and its section 5.3 bars free-tier dataset-building; MarineTraffic caps each key at 100 total requests per minute.

1. Cross-check disputed attributes against GISIS, the member-state-reported source of ship and company particulars, treating platform values as compiled rather than authoritative.

These entries cover the identifiers and fleets that particulars attach to: the permanent hull identifier that survives ownership changes, and the movement events those identifiers link together.