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Most mariners can tell you the significance of a ship’s IMO number but few know how the number is chosen. One of the guys mathematicians over at koti.mbnet.fi thinks he’s figured it out:

IMO Numbers are made up of letters IMO and seven decimal digits.

1. The digits to be checked are weighted from right to left by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.
2. Products are added up.
3. The sum is divided by 10. The remainder is the check digit.

Example: IMO 9074729 (Pacific Frontier, Hong Kong)

	 9  0  7  4  7  2  9
	 7  6  5  4  3  2
	63  0 35 16 21  4  = 139 -> 9

The method could also be described by saying that the weighting factors are 3..8 from left to right, and the check digit is the digit that you need to add to the sum to make it evenly divisible by 10.

If anyone is a mathematician or cryptologist and can verify this please leave a comment below.

So what is an IMO Number anyway? Triton’s Tells Us:

As a result of the attack on the USS Cole, the events of Sept. 11, 2001 and the suicide bombing of the oil tanker Limburg, the IMO held a Diplomatic Conference on Maritime Security in December 2002. At the conference, it adopted a number of measures aimed at enhancing the security of ships and port facilities. In addition to the creation of the well-known ISPS Code, the conference also included a modification to SOLAS Regulation XI-1/3 to require ships’ identification numbers to be permanently marked in a visible place either on the ship’s hull or superstructure.

The IMO Ship Identification Number is a unique seven-digit number assigned to propelled, seagoing vessels of 100 gross tons and above. The number is assigned by Lloyd’s Register - Fairplay Ltd. on behalf of the IMO. It consists of the three letters IMO followed by seven numbers.

It is important to note that this number is separate and different from your official number. The official number is an internal control number issued by your yacht’s flag administration and cannot be used to replace the IMO number.

gCaptain’s Short Answer: A vessel’s “IMO Number” is the single best way to track and locate history on a ship since each number is unique and is the only identification that remains with a vessel from shipyard to scrapyard.

Links:

• Official IMO Issuance Page
• Pari-MOU - Ship Info and Detentions by IMO Number (Free)
• Look-Up Vessel Information by IMO Number (Registration required)
• USCG Vessel Information by IMO (Hull) Number
• Shipspotters.com Forum Discussion on IMO Numbers

USCG Press Release 7 Feb 2008:

Last April the Coast Guard asked for public comment on the need to continue broadcasting high frequency (HF) high seas weather forecasts for single sideband voice, facsimile charts and text messages over radiotelex (e.g. HF NAVTEX). The Coast Guard required public comment because the infrastructure necessary to provide these services had exceeded its life expectancy and significant costs were involved to continue these services.

After reviewing and analyzing the substantial public response that overwhelmingly urged the continuation of these services, the Coast Guard’s “business case study” concluded that it was necessary to continue HF weather broadcasts. The business case study, “An Impact Assessment of Discontinuing USCG High-Frequency Radio Broadcasts of NWS Marine Weather Forecasts” is posted at: http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/marcomms/high_frequency/HF-WX_notice.htm

The study concluded:
“The responding public collectively perceives that the USCG HF broadcasts are essential to their safety. There is no viable alternative to the USCG HF broadcasts because present alternatives are perceived by the public to be out of financial reach. Also, marine weather forecasts available through these alternative sources may not guarantee the same level of accuracy, timeliness, and/or sufficiency as provided by the USCG HF broadcasts.”

While the Coast Guard does not have funds necessary to replace all of its HF transmitters, funds are available to replace the 20 transmitters used for weather broadcasts.

gCaptain appreciates the letters sent after highlighting this issue in May.

gCaptain’s all time favorite TV commercial and worst nightmare.

Funniest video of last year! Thanks, Berlitz

(Is your company blocking access? View the file here: LINK )

Bitterend brings us the anniversary of AMVER:

Originally known as the Atlantic Merchant Vessel Emergency Reporting (AMVER) System, it became operational on July 18, 1958. Amver began as an experiment, confined to waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, notorious for icebergs, fog and winter storms. Vice Admiral Alfred C. Richmond, Coast Guard Commandant at the time, called on all commercial vessels of U.S. and foreign registry, over 1,000 gross tons and making a voyage of more than 24 hours, to voluntarily become Amver participants. The basic premise of Amver, as a vehicle for mariner to help mariner without regard to nationality, continues to this day. Continue Reading…

Navagear brings us info on Standard’s new floating handheld VHF:

Standard Horizon HX850S VHF/GPS DSC Floating RadioNot that I spend a lot of waking OR sleeping hours dreaming about handheld VHF radios, mind you. Still, this thing is pretty dang cool.

Behold the Standard Horizon HX850S VHF/GPS DSC Floating Submersible Radio. I’d link to the manufacturer’s site, but there isn’t any info about this model up there yet?!

Apparently, there’s actually a good reason for this. After berating Standard-Horizon for their lack of a press release about this new product, Panbo learned that Standard-Horizon is still awaiting final FCC certification for the product. Oh golly, not another cool product in limbo because of the FCC!!

Thanks Tim.

Kurt Schwehr, UNH Professor and author of Kurt’s weblog point us to this quick tip;

Fred Pot pointed me to the ability of an AIS device to assist in making a VHF DSC call. Nice!

6.10 Making a DSC Call (In map mode)

To make a DSC call, the unit must be connected to a SimNet compatible

DSC VHF radio.

.

In Display Mode highlight a vessel icon then press and hold the

HOME/DSC key, the AI50 will format a Routine Individual DSC call.  A

"Creating DSC Call" window opens showing the MMSI number and name of

the vessel you intend to call.

.

If this is correct and you wish to continue, press Ret MENU or > to

send the call. The "Routine DSC Call" window opens confirming that the

call has been created and sent to the VHF radio.

Read the full post HERE.

Techcrunch brings us the Dash in-car GPS navigator;

Map mashups may be one of the coolest things on the Web, but they would be even cooler in your car. Dash Navigation is announcing today that it will make possible exactly such vehicular mashups (the Web kind, not the actual kind). Dash is developing a GPS navigation system for cars that will go on sale early next year. The device will collects data about traffic conditions from all other Dash drivers, and estimates how long alternative routes will take on any given day. Since they will be connected through a cellular data network to the Internet, all sorts of geo-tagged information can be pushed to the device and combined with the on-board maps. Everything from restaurants and open houses to concerts, gas, and golf courses could be sent to the Dash and appear there on the map. Owners will be able to manage which mashups they receive through Dash’s Website. There, they will be able to drag feeds from sites like Platial, where they can create a Google Map of dog runs in San Francisco or yoga schools in LA. Link it to Zillow, and you will be able to get data on houses as you are driving around the neighborhood. Read More…

So what does this have to do with navigating a large ship? It is my belief this type of technology is going to save lives and millions of dollars in claims. As I’ve stated previously we need better collaboration at sea. GMDSS, the radio electronics suite carried aboard ship, is a powerful tool that provides tools such as group calling via DSC and real time chat via INMARSAT C, but how many ships utilize these user unfriendly features? The sad answer; almost never.

The now antiquated GMDSS system is not soley to blame. Inmarsat-B is no more difficult to use than pulling out the phone book (or in our case the ITU directory) and calling a local number but it’s rarely used even when it can prevent a collision at sea. The reason I explain in my first Pasha Bulker commentary HERE but I’ll share the pertinent excerpt;

To clarify there are two type of prevention systems; active and passive. The former being systems that require positive effort. In this case did the crew used their satellite comms to discuss the weather patterns with meteorologists or did they simply ignore the port authority’s warnings? Did the captain use his AIS to identify the surrounding ships and call fellow captains via GMDSS to discuss the situation? Did they have access to and use real-time weather data or wait for a 2-dimensional weather fax?

I go on to discuss how the technological improvements that are saving lives today are mostly passive. EPIRBs (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons) are the simplest example of this; they are secured to an outside bulkhead with a hydrostatic unit that releases and activates the device automatically when a ship sinks. In an emergency, however, we are trained to activate the device prior to sinking but the statistics show active use of this passive device is rarely seen by Coast Guard rescuers. The reasons are simple. Human nature has instilled us with a Can Do attitude that is only fostered by the dangers of our profession. Furthermore with recent moves to criminalize the mariner and increased pressures from management that real time communication enables some captains simple wait for the moment of eminent doom before asking rescuers for help. With the Coast Guard performing multiple duties (law making, judiciary, law enforcement, rescue) and new laws being written at an accelerated pace the fact mariners make the dangerous decision to delay rescue should not be surprising.

Early this year Jim Gray, a Microsoft researcher and beloved member of the tech community was lost at sea. The specific cause of his disappearance is still unknown but we are certain his EPIRB was never activated. Wired has a plausible explination for the failure;

Like many sailors, Gray could also be slightly careless about safety equipment. He stashed his emergency radio beacon — designed to deploy automatically underwater—on a shelf in the companionway, below deck, and didn’t always remember to bring it up before leaving the dock, according to Carnes.¹ If a log had opened a big enough hole in the hull, Bilger estimates, Tenacious could have sunk in as little as 30 seconds; hardly enough time to fetch the EPIRB or start inflating a dinghy with the foot pump stored under the cockpit seat. If something bad did happen out there, Jim Bellingham says, Gray’s unflappable attitude may not have served him well. “With Jim being an engineer, you can imagine him thinking, ‘I can fix this’ — and then the whole thing snowballs. He was a level-headed, steady guy who wasn’t likely to panic. Which is maybe too bad, because a less-competent person might have grabbed the radio and shouted for help.” (click here for the full article)

As a Master Mariner I would say this explanation is not only plausible but likely. I would, however, like to add one additional reason he might not have grabbed the EPIRB; emergency situations challenge your persons resources. On commercial ships every officer is required to take a course in Bridge Resource Management. BRM is a process to use all of your available resources during critical operations. It came from the airline industry which found an alarming number of accidents happened despite prior warning from the equipment or crew…. mostly by captains with military backgrounds and a “can do” attitude who did not use or fully process information from either the equipment or junior personnel. Boiled down it’s a course in teamwork and processing the large amounts of data (lookout reports, radar, radio comms, gps charting, weather information….) that pours into the bridge. The last part is critical and a likely reason Jim Gray did not activate the most important emergency device carried at sea, he was simply too busy handling the situtation.

Let’s quickly list some of the most important improvements to our industry in the last ten years;

• EPIRBs
• Double Hulls
• Weather Routing
• Inert Gas Systems for Tankers
• Vessel Traffic Services
• AIS
• GPS

Now a list of improvements that have great potential but have failed to be embraced by the industry;

• Advanced GMDSS DSC features
• Cyber-based training
• Container tracking and scanning
• Personnel Tracking (TWIC)
• Homeport
• ECDIS

Notice the difference? The first set are passive systems. Double Hulls require no action after being built, weather routing instructions get sent to the ship, IG systems are simply turned on (awaiting hate mail from engineering), Vessel Traffic requires only call ins, AIS and GPS only display not require data. On the flip side DSC features like group calling requires hours in front of the manual, container and personnel tracking require accurate/time consuming data from the field, ECDIS requires both data input and extensive training and the internet based solutions, Homeport and cyber-based training, require active user participation.

Looking at the above list Weather Routing, the collection and deciphering of weather data to re-route a vessel’s path around storms, is by far the most difficult activity but is a success and considered passive. Why? The hard work is done by shore-based experts. It also augments rather than replacing shipboard weather planning and it arrives via an easy to use device, the fax machine. This is the reason the DASH in-car system has great potential to save lives, it’s mostly passive.

The DASH has the potential to take information from the ship via satellite, be reprocessed by third party providers, and send it back to the ship in an easy to use format. Right now we have the ability to collect AIS data from surrounding ships, we also have third party providers who take the data and plot it in on well known platforms like google earth (visit vesseltrax.com/ then download their Google Earth plug in for an example). What we are missing is a delivery system, some way to get the data out to the vessel. DASH could be the answer.

Imagine this, an Electronic Charting Display (ecdis) that plots both AIS data and a radar overlay. This already exists but let’s add weather charting (or a weather dashboard?), real time piracy reports, Coast Pilot information…. How about the ability to highlight a section of the ocean with your mouse and send a text message to ships in that area? What if NOAA had the same ability to text only the ships located near the coast after a tsunami warning? I believe this would eliminate the ban of mariners; the undesignated distress relay (false alarm).

What about the shoreside magager? Could vesseltrax be designed for the Microsoft Surface? This technology plots data on touch screen device that looks like a plasma television laying on a coffee table but is capable of storing vast amounts of data and making it interactive. Suddenly the vessel manager could walk into the operations room, look at a map of all his ships then overlay weather/security/operational alerts. In an emergency he could touch a ship on the map then press a button to skype the vessel via his bluetooth headset, then watch the vessel’s emergency traffic, forward it to other vessels in the fleet and even drag the latest crew list and station bill to the Coast Guard REC… surface would then email the data and perform the other functions behind the scenes.

Think this is just one mariner’s dream of the future? gCaptain currently has the resources to make this dream happen using existing technology. We plan to grow into a resource that will be an integral part of your bridge team and an essential tool at all levels of the industry. If you would like to hire our development team or simple discuss ideas for the future please contact us directly. Till then, stay safe. -John

John Konrad is a USCG licensed Master Mariner of Unlimited Tonnage currently working as Chief Mate aboard a 835′ship in the Gulf of Mexico. Since graduating from SUNY Maritime College he has sailed 4 of the world’s oceans and reports from his ship via satellite.

As mates, masters and pilots of really big ships we get plenty of bragging rights on the waterfront but the small guys have one thing on us, cool handheld electronics. Sure we (well most of us) have million dollar GMDSS, VSAT, ECDIS and radar systems that would make any geek drool but the small interesting stuff often eludes us. That’s why I was blown away today by Panbo’s post on his Standard/Horizon HX470S VHF handheld with DSC.

We have already touched on the importance of Digital Selective Calling (DSC) in collision avoidance (HERE) as well as the importance of communication devices in an abandon ship scenario (HERE) but this device allows you the capabilities of both. See DSC is important because it sets off an alarm on the bridge of a ship. Every ocean going ship monitors VHF Ch. 16 but for a number of reasons (interference, volume left on low, mate stepping out to the bridge wing…) not every call is heard. DSC is different because it sets and alarm off on the bridge of the ship and has the capability of changing the VHF channel on their radio.

Why is this important (take notes if you want to sell the idea to the Marine Superintendent) let’s say you abandon ship and are drifting at sea. You see a ship on the horizon but fail to hail it on 16 or with your pyrotechnics… simply activate the DSC feature on your HX470S and start hailing MAYDAY. Your chances of being heard just improved. The remote chance of using this feature seem hardly worth the effort of ordering…. until you need it.

Read Panbo’s take HERE and the specs HERE. The only question is when will Garmin bring AIS data to the NUVI??

The first RADIO DISTRESS SIGNAL was transmitted from the East Goodwin Lightship on 17 March 1899 when the merchant vessel Elbe ran aground on the Goodwin Sands. The message was received by the radio operator on duty at the South Foreland Lighthouse, who was able to summon the aid of the Ramsgate lifeboat.The Goodwin Sands again featured in another ‘first’ when on 30 April 1899, the East Goodwin Sands Lightship sent a distress message on her own account when she was rammed by the SS R. F. Matthews.

This was prior to the introduction of the ‘SOS’ and the recognized call sign for ships in distress then was ‘CQD’. This signal had been devised by the Marconi Company, it was intended to mean ‘All Stations - Urgent’, but was popularly misinterpreted as ‘Come Quick - Danger’ or ‘Come Quickly Down’. [Continue Reading →]