Maritime Glossary
Source-cited definitions for shipping, engineering, navigation, and regulatory terminology. Confidence-scored and verified against primary IMO, IHO, and industry sources.
- COLREGSInternational Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea · IRPCS · Rules of the Road
- The COLREGs are the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972 — the 'rules of the road' for ships. They set out how vessels must navigate, signal and give way to one another to avoid collision.
- navigationsafetyregulationhigh confidence
- Cabotagecoastal trade · cabotage law
- Cabotage is the carriage of goods or passengers between two ports within the same country. Many countries reserve their cabotage, or domestic coastal trade, to ships that are nationally flagged, built or crewed, to protect their domestic shipping industry.
- commercialregulationlegalhigh confidence
- Capesizecapesize bulk carrier · cape
- Capesize describes very large bulk carriers, typically around 150,000 tonnes deadweight and above, that are too big to transit the Panama or Suez Canals and so must sail the long way around the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn.
- ship-typescommercialhigh confidence
- Capstanmooring capstan
- A capstan is a rotating vertical drum, mounted on deck, used to heave on ropes and mooring lines. Its vertical axis distinguishes it from the horizontal windlass, and it is commonly used to help handle mooring lines and warp a ship.
- deck-machinerymooringseamanshiphigh confidence
- Carbon Intensity IndicatorCII
- The CII, or Carbon Intensity Indicator, is an IMO measure of how efficiently a ship carries cargo in terms of carbon emissions. Ships are given an annual operational rating from A to E, and persistently poor performers must take corrective action.
- decarbonizationregulationhigh confidence
- Charter PartyC/P
- A charter party is the contract by which a shipowner lets the use of a ship, or space in it, to a charterer. The main forms are the voyage charter, the time charter and the bareboat charter, each dividing costs and control differently.
- commerciallegalcharteringhigh confidence
- Classification Societyclass society
- A classification society is an independent organisation that sets technical standards for the design, construction and maintenance of ships, and surveys vessels against those rules. A ship 'in class' holds a valid class certificate confirming it meets them.
- regulationsafetyorganizationshigh confidence
- Cofferdamcoffer dam
- A cofferdam is an empty space, or void, built between two compartments of a ship to separate them, preventing the contents of one from leaking into the other and providing a safety barrier, for example between fuel tanks and cargo or accommodation.
- ship-structuresafetytankshigh confidence
- Container Shipcontainership · box ship
- A container ship carries its cargo in standardised intermodal containers stowed in cellular holds and stacked on deck. Capacity is measured in TEU, and the largest vessels now carry well over 24,000 TEU.
- vessel-typescargohigh confidence