Boatnerd Discussion Forum

As of 4:45 pm on April 8 so far at last check earlier today, American Integrity had their AIS showing a Cleveland destination. There was no strange or odd stuff on their AIS at least when I checked it out earlier today. Sometimes it seems like they put in the AIS with a normal destination as I like to say and call it, then sometimes it looks different!

As of 4:45 p.m. on April 7, the American Integrity is currently moored at the CN Ore Dock in Duluth and loading. In checking out their AIS today on the boatnerd AIS map, it is still showing an odd destination once again and exactly the same type of thing that we have all been talking about here and also discussing lately. So, it looks and appears that this must be something new then at least that the American Integrity is doing now for the 2025 season!

Some of the AIS info. we're seeing that appears to be nonsense or garbled code may in fact be U.S. Geographic Unique ID (US/GUID) codes, one of two destination code systems that U.S.-flagged ships' crew are encouraged to use in their AIS systems, per the [b]"Destination"[/b] section of the [b][url=https://navcen.uscg.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/AIS/AISGuide.pdf]the guidance document linked here[/url][/b].

I'm assuming that most Canadian and internationally flagged ships' mariners are using the slightly more straightforward United Nations location code (UN/LOCODE), [b][url=https://unece.org/trade/cefact/unlocode-code-list-country-and-territory]which can be explored here[/url][/b].

Massive excel spreadsheet keys for the more arcane US/GUID system [b][url=https://navcen.uscg.gov/contact/ais_encoding_guide]can be downloaded at this page[/url][/b].

For instance, a search of the spreadsheet mentioned above for the US/GUID code "0N7F", at the end of the string of code in the screenshot of [i][b]American Integrity[/b][/i]'s marinetraffic page posted earlier in this thread, shows that said code corresponds to UN/LOCODE code "DT4", both referring to DeTour Village, MI.

No idea whether the crews on the ships are actually, purposefully manually input-ing those arcane codes into their ships' AIS units, or whether what we're seeing on MarineTraffic is some sort of result of the multi-layered interaction between the ships' AIS units, the ships' ECDIS systems, and the public-facing software deployed by web services / applications like MarineTraffic.

American Integrity is upbound on Lake Michigan as of 10:30 am on April 4 after unloading in Gary. Their AIS is still showing the same exact way that you have it pictured here so far.

Hope this isn’t something new they are trying out and doing then for this year and season! If it is, will definitely make for tracking the ships more and more complicated along with difficult and challenging. I struggle often just trying to figure out and track the Herbert C. Jackson and their AIS. Their AIS the way they’ve been doing it, is certainly a challenge for me as I am not used to or familiar with some of the abbreviations that are used on the AIS which makes it very challenging.

I checked again Friday morning and they were all correct except the American Integrity's:

[attachment=0]Screenshot_20250404_084420_MarineTraffic.jpg[/attachment]

Bob, you’re not alone and the only one as I was getting the same thing as well with the ASC ships and was wondering the same exact thing that you had asked about in your post.

I am familiar with what the original post is referring to, and I believe the explanation has to do with ships with ECDIS/nav systems that are tied in with the AIS. When those two systems "talk to each other" I believe the ECS system is able to change an AIS destination. Why it ends up as random letters and numbers, I’m not sure.

I know there's a time delay with posts on this forum, but I'm not seeing any issues with destinations on any ASC vessels as of Thursday morning.

Indiana Harbor = Two Harbor's MN
American Integrity = Gary
John J Boland = Toledo
American Mariner = Calcite
American Century = St. Clair
Sam Laud = Sandusky Anch
Great Republic = Toledo
Burns Harbor = Burns Harbor
Walter J McCarthy = Superior Ch 74
American Spirit = Two Hbr
H Lee White = Duluth/Superior

What’s going on with asc ship ais destination, both the Indiana harbor and American integrity have been posting odd destinations on there ais such as xxxx????on or something like that. I have seen this several times already this season. What does it mean? I thought they were always supposed to post there destination in case the ship went missing.