What is USCG vessel documentation?
Federal documentation is a national registration of a vessel with the U.S. Coast Guard's National Vessel Documentation Center. Instead of a state bow number, a documented vessel has a permanent official number marked inside the hull and displays its name and hailing port. Vessels of at least five net tons owned by a U.S. citizen are eligible; commercial vessels in coastwise trade or the fisheries above that threshold are generally required to document. New to this? Start with registration vs USCG documentation.
What you can search by
- Vessel name (partial names work)
- Official number
- Hull Identification Number (HIN)
- Call sign
What the record shows
- Documentation status and dates
- Service and endorsements
- Hailing port, build year, and builder
- Dimensions and tonnage
Owner names are not shown — individual owners have been redacted from public USCG data since 2017, so no lookup can return them.
Source: derived from the U.S. Coast Guard's public documented-vessel data (Merchant Vessels of the United States). The record is refreshed monthly; each vessel page shows the snapshot date it was captured. Always confirm current documentation status with the Coast Guard PSIX before relying on it for a purchase.
Keep reading
Independent reference tool — not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the U.S. Coast Guard or the National Maritime Center. Vessel data is derived from public USCG sources and may lag official records; always verify with the issuing authority.