AIS navigational status
AIS navigational status 15: Undefined (default)
No status set. What status 15 means, what speed and track should go with it, and how often it is simply wrong.
What status 15 means
Undefined: the "not available" value the field holds when nothing has been set. It is not a state the vessel is in — it is the absence of a claim.
What should go with it
Anything. The field is simply empty.
Navigational status is entered by hand on the bridge; speed, course and position come from a satellite receiver. Read the status as testimony and the rest as measurement. Where they agree you have learned something. Where they disagree, the measurement is usually right.
How it goes wrong
Displaying 15 as if it were a status invites a reader to over-interpret it. Our ingest stores it as "not reported" and every page on this site prints it that way.
All sixteen codes
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0 | Under way using engine |
| 1 | At anchor |
| 2 | Not under command |
| 3 | Restricted manoeuvrability |
| 4 | Constrained by her draught |
| 5 | Moored |
| 6 | Aground |
| 7 | Engaged in fishing |
| 8 | Under way sailing |
| 9 | Reserved for future amendment (HSC) |
| 10 | Reserved for future amendment (WIG) |
| 11 | Power-driven vessel towing astern |
| 12 | Power-driven vessel pushing ahead or towing alongside |
| 13 | Reserved for future use |
| 14 | AIS-SART, MOB-AIS or EPIRB-AIS active |
| 15 | Undefined (default) |
For the field as a whole — and how this site handles it — read AIS navigational status codes, all sixteen.