AIS ship and cargo type · Passenger ships
AIS ship type 63: Passenger ship, hazardous category C
Ship type 63 is the passenger ships family, units digit 3: hazardous category C. What it means, what it does not, and how many vessels we can hear sending it right now.
What code 63 means
Ships carrying passengers: ferries, ro-pax, cruise ships and smaller passenger vessels. AIS gives all of them the same family, so a harbour ferry and a large cruise ship can both report 60; the dimensions fields, not the type code, tell them apart.
A units digit of 3 is the operator declaring hazardous category C cargo on board — the standard groups dangerous goods, harmful substances and marine pollutants into categories A to D. It is a voluntary, hand-entered declaration, not a manifest.
Reading the two digits
- Tens digit 6 → the passenger ships family, codes 60–69.
- Units digit 3 → hazardous category C.
- Therefore: Passenger ship, hazardous category C.
Every code in the 60–69 range
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 60 | Passenger ship |
| 61 | Passenger ship, hazardous category A |
| 62 | Passenger ship, hazardous category B |
| 63 | Passenger ship, hazardous category C |
| 64 | Passenger ship, hazardous category D |
| 65 | Passenger ship, reserved |
| 66 | Passenger ship, reserved |
| 67 | Passenger ship, reserved |
| 68 | Passenger ship, reserved |
| 69 | Passenger ship, 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.