Vessel dossier: what is inside and how to order it

A vessel dossier is a PDF with a check date on it — everything we hold on a vessel in one document: who owns it and who owned it before, a sanctions screening, particulars and class, port state control inspections and detentions, and where the vessel has been trading over recent months. It arrives by email and stays in your account.

The document is built from data we already hold, so it arrives immediately — usually within seconds.

How the dossier differs from the vessel page

The vessel page shows part of this on screen, for free. The dossier differs in four ways:

• A check date in the header: the document states the moment the data was verified — that is what you attach to correspondence or to a decision on a deal.
• Completeness: on the page some blocks are gated by plan; in the document they are always present, whatever your subscription: you paid for a document, not for a page view.
• Sections the page does not carry at all: ownership history with the date each role changed hands, and laden-versus-ballast statistics.
• Form: one file you forward onward, instead of fifteen tabs.

What is inside

Where we hold nothing for a field, the document says "no data": no inspections means missing data, not "clean", and the document says so plainly.

What the trading sections mean

Three sections — "Where the vessel traded", "Repeated routes" and "Laden and ballast" — answer a question neither the registry nor port state control settles: what the vessel is doing now. A bulker shuttling between two ports for the third month and a bulker of identical particulars on a transocean leg are different propositions.

Read them with two caveats, and the document states both:

• The observation window is printed in the section itself and is computed from actual coverage. A call we did not observe is not in the document — and that is not the same as the absence of a call.
• Cargo state is inferred from the draught the vessel broadcasts itself. Not every vessel does, so the number of undetermined voyages is printed on its own line, and the ballast share is computed only over voyages that carry the signal — stating plainly how many of how many. Below four classified voyages no share is given.

What the order card shows

Above the order button sits the table of contents of the future document with real numbers for this vessel: how many particulars will print, the sanctions screening result, how many ownership, name and flag history records, how many inspections and detentions, how many port calls over the observation window. The numbers are computed from the same data the document itself is built from, so they always match it.

How to order

There are four ways in — from Reports and dossiers, from a vessel page, from the map and from a chat with Storm AI. No prior registration is needed: the purchase creates the account.

From Reports and dossiers — when you know the vessel's name but not its page:

1. Open Screening → Reports and dossiers in your account (without an account, use the Research section of the pricing page) and press Pick a vessel on the Vessel dossier card.
2. Type the name or the IMO number. Two characters are enough; matching vessels appear as a list.
3. Choose the vessel. A card opens with the table of contents of the document for that vessel: how many particulars will be printed, the sanctions screening result, how many ownership records, inspections and port calls. It is the same card that sits in the right-hand column of a vessel page — it confirms both that you picked the right ship and what the document will contain.
4. Enter the email the document should go to and press Build the dossier. If you are signed in, you are not asked for an email: the document goes to your account address.
5. Complete the payment. Pressing the payment button means you accept the Report Purchase Terms and the Terms of Use and confirm that you have read the Privacy Policy.

From a vessel page — when you are already on one. The dossier is the "Vessel dossier" row of the Vessel documents card in the right-hand column, with or without an account: the price button opens a dialog with the document's table of contents, and the Sample PDF link opens a sample. When the vessel has inspections on file, the dialog's table of contents has a row with a plus sign and the price under “Port state control inspections”: N deficiencies, line by line, or every inspection with port and authority for a vessel with no deficiencies. It is the full inspection report, a separate document; select the row and both documents go into one payment, and a line under it tells you when the report arrives.

If you are signed in, the card says which account address the document goes to, and the button shows the total. Pressing Build the dossier opens the checkout straight away. If you have a check bundle for the dossier, the button reads Build the dossier — from bundle: pressing it opens a step, and the check is spent only by Confirm and use my bundle.

Without an account, pressing Build the dossier opens a step before checkout: an email field and Continue to payment with the total — the checkout opens only from this button. Changed your mind — press Cancel.

From the map — when you found the ship on Ports & vessels: tap it, and the card at the bottom of the screen carries a row of actions — Buy dossier, Add to fleet, Vessel page, Replay. Tapping Buy dossier opens the same dialog with the document's table of contents and the email field.

From a chat with Storm AI — when you asked the assistant about a vessel. If part of the information is only in the dossier, Storm AI first answers with what is open, and under the answer places a Dossier on card with a Buy the dossier button and the price. If your plan includes the dossier, the button reads Get the dossier. The button opens the same dialog with the document's table of contents and the email field as on the vessel page; the conversation stays open. Within one conversation the card for a given vessel appears once.

The document arrives by email with the subject “Vessel dossier — (IMO …)” and appears in your account under Screening → Reports and dossiers → My reports.

How to get into the account if you did not have one

The purchase creates the account itself, on the address you gave. There is no password to set — signing in works differently:

1. The email with the document carries an Open my account button. It works once and lasts 30 minutes.
2. If the button no longer works, open the sign-in page and pick Sign in with an email code. Enter the same address and you get a six-digit code — it also lasts 30 minutes and works once.
3. On the first sign-in we ask for your country and your agreement to the documents: the country decides which document pack we must issue you. It is a single screen and you can fill it in later — your purchased documents stay in the account throughout.

The same is written on the order page the checkout returns you to.

A dossier can be built for any vessel in the registry: the search on the Vessel dossier card covers the whole registry.

A registry vessel also has its own card at /vessels/<IMO>-<name>. It opens whether or not an overview text has been written for that ship: particulars, class, inspections, sanctions screening, name and flag history and the ownership chain are shown either way, and the Vessel dossier card with the document's table of contents sits in the right-hand column. You reach it from vessel search and from a vessel card on the map.

See a sample before you buy

Under the order button there is a "See a sample dossier" link. It opens the same document you would receive, marked "SAMPLE" in the header and in every footer.

There are two samples, and which one opens depends on whether a vessel has been picked:

• A vessel is picked — from a vessel page or from the picker card: the sample is built for that vessel. Its sections and record counts are real; the values are hidden and unlock after payment. This answers "what exactly will I get for this ship".
• No vessel is picked — from the pricing showcase: the sample is fictional. Its vessel, numbers, companies, dates and ports refer to no real ship.

It is a full document rather than a mock-up: the same sections at the same depth — how the inspection table reads, what the sanctions screening says, how the ownership chain is laid out, and how the port calls are shown. The language follows the page — the English page opens the English document.

Which language the document is in

For you the dossier is built in English only — one file, one language, nothing to choose at checkout.

Is the dossier included in a subscription

Paid plans carry a monthly quota, counted per organisation rather than per person:

The free allowance is taken by the account owner; a team member can buy a document themselves. When the dossier is included in your plan, the vessel page button reads Build the dossier — included. Pressing it opens a step that shows how many plan dossiers are left this month; the allowance is used only when you press Confirm and use my plan, and Cancel takes you back without using it. The full inspection report is not part of the quota: tick it and you pay for the report only. Beyond the quota a dossier is bought one-off or in a discounted bundle — see Check bundles. Purchased dossiers never consume the quota.

The dossier costs $19.99: press Build the dossier — $19.99 on the vessel page (without an account, enter your email and press Continue to payment) and pay by card; the document is emailed to you and stays in your account. See a sample dossier next to the button shows what you get before you pay.

How long it is kept and can it be downloaded again

The order stays in your account and remains available whatever plan you are on. Only the order's owner can download it: the link checks who is opening it.

If you are signed in and buy the same document again within 24 hours of the purchase, the order you already have opens instead of checkout — no second payment. If you need a fresh version sooner, contact support.

If the payment is not confirmed

After payment the checkout returns you to the order page. The confirmation usually arrives within a minute: the heading changes to "Building your document", then to "Your document is ready". There is no need to reload — the page checks the status by itself.

Some banks send the confirmation with a delay. If the payment is still not confirmed 10 minutes after you placed the order, the page shows the heading "Payment not confirmed yet" and a notice with the order number. What to do:

1. Do not pay for the order a second time: keep the page open. As soon as the confirmation arrives, it moves on to "Building your document" by itself.
2. Check in your banking app whether the money was taken.
3. If you were charged but the order is still not confirmed, press Contact support on the notice. The request form opens with the Payment category, the subject and the order number already filled in. Add when and how much the bank charged, and attach a bank statement or a screenshot of the charge. Once sent, the form shows the address the reply will go to — you do not need to sign in for this.
4. We will deliver the document or refund you, and reply to the email given in the request.

If payment for this order has not been started yet — for example, you closed the payment page without choosing how to pay — the notice says "Payment not completed" and offers Return to payment. It leads to the same payment, so you will not be charged twice. If a payment method has already been chosen, the button is not there: the bank may already have taken the money, and paying again would charge you a second time.

If you have already closed the order page, contact support from the email you gave at checkout and state the time and amount of the charge — we will find the order by the email.

If the document does not arrive

Check your spam folder, then open Screening → Reports and dossiers → My reports in your account: the document is available there even when the email did not get through. If the order is marked as failed, we already know and are looking into it.

Full vessel history as a separate PDF

If you do not need the whole dossier but do need the history, that is a separate document: every port call and completed voyage accumulated up to the moment of purchase, with a check date on the cover.

There are two ways to order it:

• From the home page — the "Full vessel history" button in the "Voyage and port-call history" block. You then pick the vessel by name or IMO.
• From a vessel page — the Download full history · PDF button under the voyage and port-call tables and the "Full vessel history" row in the Vessel documents card; when the card is on the page, a link to it sits under the tables. Without an account, the price button opens a dialog where you enter the email for the document.

Before payment the card shows what the snapshot will cover for the chosen vessel: the observation window, how many completed voyages and how many port calls. If we have seen no port calls in the window, the card says so plainly — you will not pay for an empty snapshot.

The "Full vessel history" row of the Vessel documents card has a Sample PDF link. It opens the snapshot for this vessel marked "SAMPLE": the sections and the number of port calls and voyages are real, while ports, dates and cargo are hidden.

It is a snapshot, not a subscription: it freezes the archive at build time and is not updated, so new calls will not appear in it. To keep following the vessel, PRO opens 60 days of history on the site and hourly position refresh.

Like the dossier, the snapshot arrives by email and stays under Screening → Reports and dossiers → My reports.