AIS ship and cargo type · High-speed craft (HSC)
AIS ship type 48: High-speed craft, reserved
Ship type 48 is reserved by the AIS standard and has no assigned meaning. Here is what it tells you when a vessel sends it anyway.
What code 48 means
High-speed craft are the fast ferries, catamarans, hydrofoils and similar vessels built to the IMO High-Speed Craft Code. On a live plot they are the ones covering ground noticeably faster than the ships around them.
Units digits 5 to 8 are reserved for future use in the qualified families. The standard gives them no meaning, so we report the family and say plainly that the qualifier is undefined rather than guessing.
Reading the two digits
- Tens digit 4 → the high-speed craft (hsc) family, codes 40–49.
- Units digit 8 → reserved (no meaning is assigned to it yet).
- Therefore: High-speed craft, reserved.
Every code in the 40–49 range
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 40 | High-speed craft |
| 41 | High-speed craft, hazardous category A |
| 42 | High-speed craft, hazardous category B |
| 43 | High-speed craft, hazardous category C |
| 44 | High-speed craft, hazardous category D |
| 45 | High-speed craft, reserved |
| 46 | High-speed craft, reserved |
| 47 | High-speed craft, reserved |
| 48 | High-speed craft, reserved |
| 49 | High-speed craft, no additional information |
What the code is not
The ship-and-cargo type is typed into the transponder by whoever installs or operates it. No authority checks it against the ship’s certificates, and it is broadcast in the static report every six minutes whether or not it is right. It describes what the operator says the vessel is, not what it is doing — that is the job of the navigational status.
For the whole decade structure in one read, see AIS ship type codes explained.