While speaking with a fellow member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States last week during one of the cocktail parties held during the Association's May meetings, the subject turned to the benefits of using the Equasis website. While we both believe the site is widely used by maritime lawyers, I felt that it was worth mentioning here just in case some of you had not heard of it.
Equasis is a free to use information system that was developed initially by the European Commission and French maritime administrations to collect and publish safety related data concerning vessels, their owners and operators. Information is collected from both public and private sources and covers most commercial vessels sailing today.
Current sources of data include: port state control regimes, classification societies, the International Group of P&I Clubs, Intertanko, Intercargo, the International Ship Manager's Association, Lloyd's Register Fairplay and numerous others.
Governmental entities that participate in providing information include, the maritime administrations of the European Commission, France, Spain, the United Kingdom and Japan and the United States Coast Guard.
Data available includes the name of the vessel, type of vessel, year of construction, flag, gross tonnage, name and address of the registered owner, name and address of the operator, certificate information including P&I and hull underwriter information, as well as a list of all violations, the date, location and nature of that violation.
Much of this detailed information can be very useful to maritime attorneys in a variety of ways and is the only source known at this time that provides this level of information for free. All that is required is for the user to complete a registration form.
