Maritime glossary
Detention
An order by Port State Control holding a ship in port until serious safety or pollution deficiencies are fixed.
Definition
A detention is the most serious outcome of a Port State Control inspection: the authority holds the ship in port because its deficiencies are grave enough to make it unsafe to sail or a threat to the environment. The ship cannot leave until the faults are rectified and, usually, re-inspected. Detentions are public, follow the IMO number for life, feed flag and operator performance lists, and weigh heavily on a vessel’s commercial standing and insurance terms.
How Vessel Hunter uses Detention
Vessel Hunter records the full detention history per hull and rolls it into the vessel’s risk profile, so repeated detentions are visible before you engage.
Inspection records in the dossier →
Related terms
- PSCPort State Control
Inspections of foreign-flagged vessels in a port’s waters, run under regional MoUs to enforce international maritime conventions.
- ISM CodeInternational Safety Management Code
The mandatory IMO framework for safe management and operation of ships, basis of the Document of Compliance and the Safety Management Certificate.
- Flag State
The country under whose laws a ship is registered, which sets the regulatory standard for the vessel.
The bigger picture
Detention is one piece of the commercial maritime picture Vessel Hunter pulls together for shipyards, suppliers, service providers, and port agents. Every vessel record bundles AIS, ownership, inspections, dry-dock history, casualty record, classification status, and a verified contact for the operator decision-maker behind the ship, so the team that reaches out first wins the work.
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