Ships continue to experience instances of port state control interventions, and sometimes hefty fines, allegedly because the validity of their electronic statutory and class certificates cannot be verified during onboard inspections.
The practice of issuing signed paper certificates to document compliance with maritime rules and regulations may be nearing its end. Recognising that paper certificates are subject to loss or damage and can be impractical to send to globally-trading ships, most major flag administrations, and classification societies, now facilitate the use of electronic certificates. The process has also been formalized through IMO documents, such as the “Guidelines for the use of electronic certificates” (FAL.5/Circ.39) and the harmonised “Procedures for port state control”, and in accordance with the latter, port state control officers (PSCOs) are requested to note that: Continue reading “Problems verifying electronic statutory and class certificates”
Together with the 
The 2022 edition of the Leading Maritime Cities (LMC) report was launched at an event hosted by the Singapore Maritime Foundation (SMF).
The British Royal Navy has been around since the 16th century and over that time has lost its fair share of warships to accidents and enemy fire. In fact the full list of lost Royal Navy vessels is over 5,000. Working with the Maritime Archaeology Sea Trust, it has compiled a full list of the thousands of vessels it has lost over the centuries and has released the searchable database to the public for use in further research.
The International Institute of Marine Surveying has announced that the Marine Surveying Academy Ltd (MSA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of IIMS, has acquired the now liquidated 
In the January Safety Flashes document published by 
