A ship classification society or ship classification organisation is a non-governmental organization that establishes and maintains technical standards for the construction and operation of

ships A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...

and offshore structures. Classification societies certify that the construction of a vessel comply with relevant standards and carry out regular surveys in service to ensure continuing compliance with the standards. Currently, more than 50 organizations describe their activities as including marine classification, twelve of which are members of the International Association of Classification Societies. A classification certificate issued by a classification society recognised by the proposed ship register is required for a ship's owner to be able to register the ship and to obtain marine insurance on the ship, and may be required to be produced before a ship's entry into some ports or waterways, and may be of interest to charterers and potential buyers. To avoid liability, classification societies explicitly disclaim responsibility for the safety, fitness for purpose, or seaworthiness of the ship, but is a verification only that the vessel is in compliance with the classification standards of the society issuing the classification certificate. Classification societies also issue International Load Line Certificates in accordance with the legislation of participating states giving effect to the

International Convention on Load Lines The International Convention on Load Lines (CLL), was signed in London on 5 April 1966, amended by the 1988 Protocol and further revised in 2003. The convention pertains specifically to a ship's load line (also referred to as the "waterline"), ...

(CLL 66/88).

Responsibilities

Classification societies set technical rules based on experience and research, confirm that designs and calculations meet these rules, survey ships and structures during the process of construction and commissioning, and periodically survey

vessels Vessel(s) or The Vessel may refer to: Biology *Blood vessel, a part of the circulatory system and function to transport blood throughout the body *Lymphatic vessel, a thin walled, valved structure that carries lymph *Vessel element, a narrow wat ...

to ensure that they continue to meet the rules. Classification societies are also responsible for classing

oil platform An oil platform (or oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, and similar terms) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platfor ...

s, other offshore structures, and

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

s. This survey process covers diesel engines, important shipboard pumps and other vital machinery. Since the 1950s, the USSR (now Russian) Register of Shipping has classified nuclear ships, the only classification society to do so. Classification surveyors inspect ships to make sure that the ship, its components and machinery are built and maintained according to the standards required for their class.

History

In the second half of the 18th century, London merchants, shipowners, and captains often gathered at Edward Lloyd's coffee house to gossip and make deals including sharing the risks and rewards of individual voyages. This became known as underwriting after the practice of signing one's name to the bottom of a document pledging to make good a portion of the losses if the ship didn't make it in return for a portion of the profits. It did not take long to realize that the underwriters needed a way of assessing the quality of the ships that they were being asked to insure. In 1760, the Register Society was formed — the first classification society and the one which would subsequently become Lloyd's Register — to publish an annual register of ships. This publication attempted to classify the condition of the ship's hull and equipment. At that time, an attempt was made to classify the condition of each ship on an annual basis. The condition of the hull was classified A, E, I, O or U, according to the state of its construction and its adjudged continuing soundness (or lack thereof). Equipment was G, M, or B: simply, good, middling or bad. In time, G, M and B were replaced by 1, 2 and 3, which is the origin of the well-known expression 'A1', meaning 'first or highest class'. The purpose of this system was not to assess safety, fitness for purpose or seaworthiness of the ship. It was to evaluate risk. Samuel Plimsoll pointed out the obvious downside of insurance: :"The ability of shipowners to insure themselves against the risks they take not only with their property, but with other peoples’ lives, is itself the greatest threat to the safe operation of ships." The first edition of the ''Register of Ships'' was published by Lloyd's Register in 1764 and was for use in the years 1764 to 1766. Bureau Veritas (BV) was founded in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

in 1828, moving to Paris in 1832. Lloyd's Register reconstituted in 1834 to become 'Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping'. Where previously surveys had been undertaken by retired sea captains, from this time surveyors started to be employed and Lloyd's Register formed a General Committee for the running of the Society and for the Rules regarding ship construction and maintenance, which began to be published from this time. In 1834, the Register Society published the first Rules for the survey and classification of vessels, and changed its name to Lloyds Register of Shipping. A full-time bureaucracy of surveyors (inspectors) and support personnel was put in place. Similar developments were taking place in the other major maritime nations. The adoption of common rules for ship construction by Norwegian insurance societies in the late 1850s led to the establishment of Det Norske Veritas (DNV) in 1864.

RINA Rina or RINA may refer to: __NOTOC__ People and fictional characters * Rina (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Kento Rina, Indian politician * Mahfuza Rahman Rina, Bangladeshi politician * Tongam Rina (born 1979), Indian j ...

was founded in Genoa, Italy in 1861 under the name ''Registro Italiano Navale'', to meet the needs of Italian maritime operators. '' Germanischer Lloyd'' (GL) was formed in 1867 and '' Nippon Kaiji Kyokai'' (ClassNK) in 1899. The

Russian Maritime Register of Shipping The Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) maintains a ship register of the Russian Federation, based in Saint Petersburg, and is a marine classification society. Its activities aim to enhance safety of navigation, safety of life at sea, se ...

(RS) was an early offshoot of the River Register of 1913. As the classification profession evolved, the practice of assigning different classifications has been superseded, with some exceptions. Today a ship either meets the relevant class society's rules or it does not. As a consequence, it is either 'in' or 'out' of 'class'. Classification societies do not issue statements or certifications that a vessel is 'fit to sail' or 'unfit to sail', merely that the vessel is in compliance with the required codes. This is in part related to legal liability of the classification society. However, each of the classification societies has developed a series of notations that may be granted to a vessel to indicate that it is in compliance with some additional criteria that may be either specific to that vessel type or that are in excess of the standard classification requirements. See Ice class as an example. There have always been concerns that competitive pressure might lead to falling standards – as expressed for example by the European Commission. To counteract class hopping, in 2009, the International Association of Classification Societies ( IACS) implemented the Transfer of Class Agreement (TOCA), whereby no member would accept a ship that had not carried out improvements demanded by its previous class society.

Today

Currently, more than 50 organizations worldwide describe their activities as including marine classification, some of which are listed below. Twelve of these are members of the International Association of Classification Societies. The largest are DNV, the American Bureau of Shipping, Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK) and Lloyd's Register. Classification societies employ naval architects, ship surveyors, material engineers, piping engineers, mechanical engineers and

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

s, often located at ports and office buildings around the world. Marine vessels and structures are classified according to the soundness of their structure and design for the purpose of the vessel. The classification rules are designed to ensure an acceptable degree of stability, safety, environmental impact, etc. In particular, classification societies may be authorised to inspect ships, oil rigs, submarines, and other marine structures and issue certificates on behalf of the flag state. As well as providing classification and certification services, the larger societies also conduct research at their own research facilities in order to improve the effectiveness of their rules and to investigate the safety of new innovations in shipbuilding.

List of classification societies

}) , DNV , 1864 , Oslo , , - , Germanischer Lloyd , GL , 1867–2013 , Hamburg , , - , Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK) , NK , 1899 , Tokyo , , - ,

(russian: label=none, Российский морской регистр судоходства) , RS , 1913 , Saint Petersburg , , - ,

Hellenic Register of Shipping {{Infobox company , name = Hellenic Register of Shipping (HRS)Ελληνικός Νηογνώμων , logo = , type = Non-governmental International Organization , genre = Classification Societ ...

, HR , 1919 , Piraeus , , - ,

Polish Register of Shipping Polish Register of Shipping, (in Polish: ''Polski Rejestr Statków S.A.''), also known as PRS, is an independent classification society established in 1936. It is a not-for-profit company working on the marine market, developing technical rules and ...

( pl, label=none, Polski Rejestr Statków) , PRS , 1936 ,

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

, , - , Phoenix Register of Shipping , PHRS , 2000 , Piraeus , , - , Korean Classification Society , KCS , 1947 , Pyongyang , , - , Croatian Register of Shipping
( hr, label=none, Hrvatski Registar Brodova) , CRS , 1949 , Split , , - ,

Bulgarian Register of Shipping {{unreferenced, date=January 2013 Bulgarian Register of Shipping ( bg, Български корабен регистър - ''Bulgarski Koraben Registur''), known as BRS (''БКР''), is the national classification society of the Republic of Bulgar ...

( bg, label=none, Български Корабен Регистър) , BRS ( bg, label=none, БКР) , 1950 , Varna , , - ,

CR Classification Society CR or Cr may refer to: In business * Conversion rate, in marketing * Credit Record, in accounting * Crown Royal, a brand of Canadian whisky Organizations Religious organizations * Celtic reconstructionism, a form of Polytheism * Congregation of ...

, CR , 1951 , Taipei , , - , China Classification Society , CCS , 1956 , Beijing , , - ,

Turk Loydu Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic o ...

, TL , 1962 , Istanbul , , - , Korean Register of Shipping , KR , 1960 , Busan , , - ,
( id, label=none, Biro Klasifikasi Indonesia) , BKI , 1964 ,

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

, , - ,

Vietnam Register Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, VR , 1964 , Hanoi , , - ,

Registro Internacional Naval Registro Internacional Naval (RINAVE) is a maritime classification society, based in Lisbon, Portugal. Origin RINAVE was formally established in 1973. On 23 May 1974, RINAVE was officially recognised by the Portuguese Government , border ...

Since 2004 merged into Bureau Veritas , RINAVE , 1973–2004 ,

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, , - , Indian Register of Shipping , IRCLASS (IRS) , 1975 , Mumbai , , - , International Register of Shipping , IRS , 1993 , Miami , , - ,

Shipping Register of Ukraine The Shipping Register of Ukraine ( uk, Регістр судноплавства України) is a Classification Society, whose main activity is a shipping safety at sea and rivers. It was established in 1998 with head office in Kyiv, Ukraine ...

( uk, label=none, Регістр судноплавства України) , RU ( uk, label=none, РУ) , 1998 , Kyiv , , - ,

Dromon Bureau of Shipping Dromon Bureau of Shipping is an International Classification Society, providing classification and statutory certification services to ships and other marine structures, based on International Conventions, Rules and Regulations. DBS maintains a ...

, DBS , 2003 , Piraeus , , - ,

Overseas Marine Certification Services Overseas Marine Certification Services also known as OMCS CLASS is an independent classification society, Recognized Organization (R.O.) and Recognized Security Organization (R.S.O.) based on Panama City, Republic of Panama. The society's was fou ...

, OMCS , 2004 , Panama , , - , Iranian Classification Society , ICS , 2006 , Tehran , , - ,

Maritime Bureau of Africa Maritime may refer to: Geography * Maritime Alps, a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps * Maritime Region, a region in Togo * Maritime Southeast Asia * The Maritimes, the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Princ ...

, MBA , 2014 , Cape Town , , - ,

International Maritime Classification International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

, IMC , 2015 , Dubai , , - ,

Dutch Lloyd Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People ...

, DL , 2018 ,

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,Asia Classification Society Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, ACS , 1980 , Tehran , , - , pt, label=none, Registro Brasileiro de Navios e Aeronaves , RBNA , 1982 , Rio de Janeiro , , - ,

MY Classification My or MY may refer to: Arts and entertainment * My (radio station), a Malaysian radio station * Little My, a fictional character in the Moomins universe * ''My'' (album), by Edyta Górniak * ''My'' (EP), by Cho Mi-yeon Business * Market ...

, MYC , 2021 , Malaysia ,

References

External links

IACS document explaining Classification societies
{{Authority control