Maritime encyclopedia
Terms and articles covering shipping, chartering, operations, marine insurance, organizations, markets, and infrastructure.
- BallastOperations
Water carried in dedicated tanks to keep an unladen ship stable, trimmed, and properly immersed.
- Ballast water managementRegulation
The treatment of ballast water before discharge, required by the IMO's BWM Convention to prevent the spread of invasive species.
- Baltic Dry Index (BDI)Commercial
The Baltic Exchange's daily composite index of dry bulk freight rates, widely watched as an economic indicator.
- Baltic ExchangeOrganizations
The London institution whose freight-market indices — led by the Baltic Dry Index — benchmark world shipping.
- Bill of ladingCommercial
A document that acts as receipt for cargo, evidence of the contract of carriage, and document of title.
- BunkersOperations
A ship's fuel — and by extension the marine fuel market and the act of refuelling (bunkering).
- CharterpartyChartering
The contract by which a shipowner lets a vessel, or its cargo capacity, to a charterer.
- Classification societiesOrganizations
The private technical institutions — DNV, Lloyd's Register, ABS and their peers — that set and verify the standards ships are built and maintained to.
- Classification societyRegulation
An organization that sets technical standards for ship construction and maintenance and surveys ships against them.
- ContainerizationHistory
How the standardized steel box remade world trade, ports, and the economics of moving goods by sea.
- Deadweight tonnage (DWT)Technical
The total weight a ship can carry — cargo, fuel, stores, water, and crew — measured in tonnes.
- DemurrageChartering
Compensation paid to the shipowner when the charterer exceeds the agreed laytime for loading or discharging.
- Draft (draught)Technical
The vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of a ship's keel.
- Dry bulkCommercial
Unpackaged dry commodities — iron ore, coal, grain, and minor bulks — carried loose in the holds of bulk carriers.
- Dry bulk shippingMarkets
The market that carries iron ore, coal, and grain — shipping's purest boom-and-bust cycle.
- Flag stateRegulation
The country in which a ship is registered, whose law governs the vessel and which is responsible for enforcing international standards aboard.
- Flags of convenienceRegulation
Why most of the world fleet flies the flags of Panama, Liberia, and the Marshall Islands — and the debate around open registries.
- FreeboardTechnical
The height of a ship's deck above the waterline — the safety margin against flooding.
- General averageInsurance
The ancient principle that sacrifices made to save a maritime venture are shared proportionally by ship and cargo interests alike.
- Greek shippingIndustry
How Greece became — and remains — the world's largest shipowning nation, controlling around a fifth of global tonnage.
- Gross tonnage (GT)Technical
A unitless measure of a ship's total enclosed volume, used for regulation, manning, and fees.
- IMO numberRegulation
A permanent seven-digit identity number that stays with a ship from build to scrapping, regardless of name or flag changes.
- International Maritime OrganizationOrganizations
The United Nations specialized agency responsible for the safety, security, and environmental performance of international shipping.
- ISM CodeRegulation
The International Safety Management Code, requiring every operator to run a documented safety management system ashore and aboard.
- LaycanChartering
The agreed window — laydays/cancelling — within which a chartered ship must arrive and be ready to load.
- LaytimeChartering
The period allowed in a voyage charterparty for loading and discharging cargo without extra payment.
- Letter of indemnity (LOI)Commercial
An undertaking to hold the carrier harmless for acting outside the bill of lading — most often delivering cargo without the original document.
- Maritime piracyIndustry
Piracy in the modern era — the Somali crisis, the Gulf of Guinea, Southeast Asia, and how shipping defends itself.
- MARPOLRegulation
The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, covering oil, chemicals, sewage, garbage, and air emissions.
- Notice of readiness (NOR)Chartering
The shipowner's formal notification that the vessel has arrived and is ready to load or discharge — the trigger for laytime.
- P&I clubInsurance
A mutual insurance association of shipowners covering third-party liabilities not insured under hull policies.
- Panama CanalInfrastructure
The lock canal across the Isthmus of Panama linking the Atlantic and Pacific — and the origin of the "Panamax" ship size.
- Port state control (PSC)Regulation
Inspection of foreign ships in national ports to verify compliance with international safety and environmental standards.
- Ship registrationRegulation
How ships acquire nationality — registries, what registration confers, and how owners choose a flag.
- ShipbrokerCommercial
An intermediary who negotiates charters, sale and purchase deals, or newbuilding contracts between owners and their counterparties.
- ShipbuildingIndustry
The global shipbuilding industry — how construction migrated to East Asia, and how China, Korea, and Japan divide the market today.
- SOLASRegulation
The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea — the core treaty governing merchant ship safety.
- Suez CanalInfrastructure
The sea-level canal linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas — the shortest route between Europe and Asia and one of world trade's great chokepoints.
- Tanker shippingMarkets
The market that moves the world's oil — crude and product tankers, their size classes, and the forces that drive their volatile earnings.
- TEUCommercial
Twenty-foot equivalent unit — the standard measure of container capacity for ships, ports, and trade volumes.
- VLCCCommercial
Very Large Crude Carrier — a crude oil tanker of roughly 200,000–320,000 DWT, the workhorse of long-haul oil trades.
- WorldscaleChartering
The standard index system for quoting tanker voyage freight rates as a percentage of a published flat rate per route.