Shipwreck Log, Marine Traffic and Sailwx, for your ship tracking needs

July 10, 2013 7:56 AM

Have you found it difficult to find information about a specific shipwreck when you only have its location, date or vessel's name? How about a find information on maritime accidents 3 weeks ago, 6 months ago, or even last year? Shipwrecklog.com was created to solve these issues. We designed our site and tools to make researching recent and historical maritime accidents easier. If you'd prefer to track active ships, you might enjoy Marine Traffic (prev: 1, 2), which tracks ships by way of their Automatic Identification Systems (prev. And as can be expected from any *spotter website, there's also a gallery of images from users. For even more sea-faring information, check Sailwx (prev), where you can track ships by type, locate bouys, and see tides, currents and weather.
posted by filthy light thief (12 comments total)

I work on the 24th floor of a building overlooking Elliott Bay in Seattle, and I use the Marine Traffic website alllll the time. I love seeing where the giant container ships came from, and the Canadian navy boats that randomly show up and have names like Moose 26. Thanks for the other resources!
posted by skycrashesdown at 8:14 AM on July 10, 2013

names like Moose 26

Do you mean Moose 62?
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 8:25 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

If you do go on a cruise, take this small test. Go to your cabin, have your companion blindfold you, spin you around 3-4 times, then time how long it takes to get to the life raft. (Extra points for doing the exercise after a few shots.)
posted by sammyo at 8:27 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

I just learned a new word - allision: The act of dashing against or striking upon; The act of striking a fixed object.

Thank you, filthy light thief.
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 8:36 AM on July 10, 2013

Party pooper mood. These sites are fun but by no means at all exhaustive or authoritative. The main companies providing this commercial data also include port agents' reports and blue water satellite data as well as detailed voyage and inspection records. That said, subscriptions to Lloyd's List Intelligence or IHI/Fairplay's systems run around USD 5,000-$10,000 per seat, depending on what modules you buy.

But now out of party pooper mood...!

I've used Marine Traffic as a very successful adjunct to the other systems when arresting vessels, and I must say, I'm quite impressed with it. It has a far more intuitive GUI than Lloyd's or IHI.

And for fun (and free!) the USCG's records of ALL inspections, arrests and causalities (the technical term for a "wreck") are available here.

Very cool post, thanks!
posted by digitalprimate at 8:52 AM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

(I'm a maritime lawyer and I'll just second everything digital primate's just said. Thanks for that Coast Guard site--I haven't used it before.)
posted by resurrexit at 9:35 AM on July 10, 2013

I should have added that the Coast Guard site is, obviously, only for things that happened in US waters.
posted by digitalprimate at 9:52 AM on July 10, 2013

Neat stuff!
Marine Traffic is a really handy site if you live in port city and want to check out interesting ships that show up.
I also like Krooz-Cams for a little vicarious cruising.
The Shipwreck Log's Costa Concordia page is fascinating.
posted by islander at 10:12 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Shipwrecklog needs to fix their "About" screen that loads first — in Chrome and Safari there's no way to keep it on the screen instead of redirecting to their main page.
posted by beagle at 10:23 AM on July 10, 2013

beagle, I think the site is still a work in progress. The only part of the site that has much information is the Shipwreck log itself, which has its own navigation bar. The only thing you're missing from that first menu of options is a gallery with 10 images, the social services page (links to Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook accounts), and the contact page. If you hit Escape at the right time, you can stop automatic re-load and view those other elements.

I linked to the main page as that had the good introduction text, and in case the site gets redesigned in the future, the base URL will still be valid as a point of entry to the site.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:15 AM on July 10, 2013

Thanks, filthy light thief. I hope you don't mind me putting it up on Reddit's r/Shipwrecks. There is something cool and creepy about metal shipwrecks that fascinates me.
posted by Canageek at 12:54 PM on July 10, 2013

Canageek, it's not mine any more, the post has been made and released back to mudda o-cean. Or the internet at large. Whatever.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:30 PM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]