Every ship
has a story.
See where she's headed.
A free live AIS ship tracker with vessel photos from Wikimedia, flag identification, port arrival times, and an unlimited MMSI watchlist of your favorites. The browser tab for when the water is the thing you watch.
Start spotting ← other watersEvery hull currently broadcasting.
Coastal receivers plus satellite AIS give you live position, heading, speed, and status for every AIS-equipped vessel on the water — cargo, tanker, cruise, tug, fishing, pleasure. Filter, follow, and bookmark.
ChartNav renders ITU-R M.1371 AIS broadcasts directly — no interpolation, no delayed feeds. Zoom from the whole Atlantic down to a specific lock or cruise berth.
Photos, flag, class — one tap.
Click any hull and a detail card opens with Wikimedia vessel photo, flag state, IMO / MMSI / callsign, dimensions, type, tonnage, destination, and ETA. The card an enthusiast actually wants, not a paywalled stub.
Photos come from Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia with full license attribution. Dimensions, type, and class are decoded from AIS static broadcasts; operator metadata is pulled from public vessel registries when available.
- IMO
- 9778937
- MMSI
- 255806218
- LOA × B
- 399.9 × 58.6 m
- GT
- 192,237
- Dest
- NLRTM
- ETA
- 14:42 UTC
The ships you keep an eye on.
Your favorites on one screen — last heard, current position, whether they're in port or underway. Add ships by MMSI, IMO, or name. Stored on your device, yours forever.
Spot a rare visitor? Bookmark it. Always wanted to follow that frigate, that veteran icebreaker, that last steam turbine tanker? Your list, your way.
Free. Fast. Actually complete.
Global AIS
Coastal plus satellite coverage. Follow ships across oceans, not just near ports.
Vessel photos
Every ship card gets a Wikimedia photo — credited, correctly licensed, properly attributed.
Flag & class
ITU country code, AIS type decode, vessel class, tonnage, IMO, callsign.
Arrivals
Destination and ETA decoded from live broadcasts. See what's arriving where, when.
Type filters
Cargo, tanker, cruise, tug, fishing, pleasure, special, military. Cut the clutter.
Unlimited watchlist
Bookmark as many vessels as you want. Your list lives on your device, forever.
Search anything
Find by name, MMSI, IMO, or callsign. Jump straight to any ship currently broadcasting.
Installs as PWA
Add to Home Screen on iOS or Android. Launches like a native app. Still free.
Questions from the pier.
What spotters ask before they bookmark.
Is ChartNav a free alternative to MarineTraffic or VesselFinder?
Yes. Live AIS, vessel photos, flag identification, and historical tracks — free, no account, no paywall. MarineTraffic and VesselFinder both gate features behind paid plans; ChartNav doesn't.
Where do the vessel photos come from?
Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia. Each photo displays its original license and photographer credit, honoring the terms under which the image was released.
Can I build a watchlist of favorite ships?
Yes. Unlimited MMSIs. Your list lives in browser storage on your device, never on our servers, and stays with you across sessions.
Can I see when a ship is due into port?
Yes. Destination and ETA are broadcast by the vessel and rendered in the detail card. Arriving traffic can be surfaced for any port area.
How current is the AIS data?
Most positions update within two minutes of the original VHF broadcast. Coastal density is high near major ports; satellite AIS fills open-ocean gaps.
Can I search by vessel name, MMSI, IMO, or callsign?
Yes, all four. Search jumps straight to the hull's current position and opens the detail card.
Open a tab. See the whole ocean.
Free. No account. The same live AIS the professionals use, with the photos and the flags and the backstory.
Open ChartNav