AIS ship and cargo type · Cargo ships
AIS ship type 77: Cargo ship, reserved
Ship type 77 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 77 means
Dry cargo ships of every kind. AIS does not distinguish a container ship from a bulk carrier, a general cargo ship or a car carrier — all of them are 7x. Any site that labels a vessel "container ship" from AIS alone is taking that from another source.
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 7 → the cargo ships family, codes 70–79.
- Units digit 7 → reserved (no meaning is assigned to it yet).
- Therefore: Cargo ship, reserved.
Every code in the 70–79 range
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 70 | Cargo ship |
| 71 | Cargo ship, hazardous category A |
| 72 | Cargo ship, hazardous category B |
| 73 | Cargo ship, hazardous category C |
| 74 | Cargo ship, hazardous category D |
| 75 | Cargo ship, reserved |
| 76 | Cargo ship, reserved |
| 77 | Cargo ship, reserved |
| 78 | Cargo ship, reserved |
| 79 | Cargo 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.