Company data methodology

This page describes how the company + manning-agency + shipowner records on Seafarer Index are sourced, dated, classified, and graded for confidence. The general site-wide policy at /data-methodology applies; this page is the company-specific subset.

Where the data comes from

• Shipping operators + ship managers — sourced from public regulatory filings (Companies House UK, US SEC, ACRA Singapore, ICRIS Hong Kong, national equivalents), the IMO-backed Equasis database (free, IMO-issued), and reputable maritime trade press (Lloyd's List, TradeWinds, Splash247, Marine Insight, gCaptain, Seatrade, Hellenic Shipping News). We do not accept payment for inclusion or for position.
• Manning agencies — sourced primarily from the national licensing regulators' published directories: DMW (Philippines), DG Shipping (India), DGST / Hubla (Indonesia), Maradmin (Ukraine), Mercantile Marine Branch (Sri Lanka), MMD (Pakistan), DoS (Bangladesh), DMA (Myanmar), Vinamarine (Vietnam), Rosmorrechflot (Russia). Where a national regulator does not publish online, agencies are sourced from ITF and ISWAN partner lists.
• Vessel ownership cross-references — the owner / manager fields on each ship record (/ships) are linked to the matching company slug. IMO Equasis is the canonical authority.
• Manning-agency licence status — captured from each regulator's active-licence list. Statuses change frequently; the registry page carries a medium-confidence badge for that reason (see below).

What we publish, what we don't

We publish:

• Company name, type (operator / manager / manning agent), headquarters country, fleet-types focus, official website + corporate address.
• For manning agencies: the regulator-published licence number + licence status + named principals where the regulator lists them.
• Vessel-ownership cross-references where confirmable on IMO records.
• Editorial commentary on verification routes + scam-impersonation warnings.

We do not publish:

• Defamatory or unverified criminal allegations against named entities.
• Personal data of any specific recruiter, officer, or employee.
• User-submitted reviews of named companies without independent verification.
• Pay-for-removal or pay-for-position arrangements (none exist; no inquiries are honoured).
• Job postings of any kind.

Confidence levels — what they mean on company pages

Each company / manning-agency / directory page carries one of the confidence badges below. The badge reflects how often we re-verify the record and how stable its fields are.

• High confidence — manually curated, primary-source-verified within the last 12 months. Default for the ~400 operator records and for company-detail pages.
• Medium confidence — default for the 500+ manning-agency registry rows. Licence statuses change frequently and the regulator's published list is the source of truth; the registry is a convenience cross-check, not a substitute.
• Low confidence — rare. Used when the only source is a single reputable trade-press citation more than 24 months old.
• Stale — needs review — the record needs re-verification. Treat as historical reference until refreshed.

Verification status

Individual fields on a record carry an internal verification tier (surfaced where useful):

• Verified — confirmed against the primary source within the last 12 months.
• Partially verified — core fields confirmed (name, country, type); secondary fields imported from public references.
• Imported — not yet verified — bulk-imported from a reputable public dataset, not yet individually checked.
• User-submitted (pending review) — submitted via the correction form, pending editor review. Not displayed in the main directory until reviewed.
• Needs review — flagged for re-verification, usually because an external source changed (licence revocation, M&A, rebrand).

Listing is not endorsement

A company or manning agency appearing on Seafarer Index does not mean we recommend working for or with them. Inclusion is a factual record of the entity's public maritime presence. Always run the verification chain in /companies/how-to-verify-a-shipping-company and /companies/how-to-verify-a-manning-agency before accepting an offer.

If you spot bad data — or a scam

Use the "Report a correction" link on any company / agency page, or see /corrections. For suspected scam impersonation of a real company, additionally report to ISWAN (SeafarerHelp) + the ITF (Get Help) — they aggregate scam reports across the industry.

Conflicts of interest

Seafarer Index has no paid advertisements, no affiliate links, and no sponsored content. The site is funded out of pocket by the operator. No company has paid for inclusion, position, removal, or favourable framing. See /editorial-standards.