Ship's Registry

[Keklas Rekobah]

The concept of a "Free Trader" being the Traveller equivalent of a modern-day "Tramp Steamer" brings up a question.

IYTU, do you concern yourself with the Ship's Registry? I mean, modern day ocean-going vessels are usually registered under the auspices of one country or another. In Traveller, a ship might have to be registered in one subsector capital, but actually operate elsewhere in the same sector. There might also be ships that "fly a flag of convenience" to get around imperial laws, and certain independent worlds that would supply a registry to "legitimize" a vessel after it's been skipped with, hijacked, or recovered as salvage.

What do you think?

 

[RainOfSteel]

IMTU: Civilian interstellar-capable ships fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Commerce and the SPA. All such ships are registered with the MoC. Registry with an individual world may be done, but is of no importance to the MoC, and having a registry on Terra/Solomani Rim is of no importance to the locals on Regina/Regina.

 

[mike wightman]

The Imperium is the flag of convenience. Ships are registered at their commissioning, and then at every annual maintenance the registration is renewed. Logs and transponder records would prevent a stolen ship from being maintained at an Imperial Starport.

IMTU if a ship is not registered with the Imperium, e.g. it operates out of the Federation of Arden, then starport customs checks are much more thorough, even if it is from a friendly client state.

Subbies are registered to their sponsoring planet government and the Imperium.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Messr Keklas Rekobah...

IMTU, I can concur with the above posters as far as Imperial shipping is concerned. The Free Traders who cross from say the Gateway-Alpha Crucis region into Ley and Glimmerdrift, for example, have homeworlds of registry if they do not hail from a Polity from without the Imperium.

As a general rule, they prefer an Imperial Client State (Cs) to an independent world with mercurial laws and standards for port of registry (with at least a C-class starport), though they might have been built elsewhere.

So if they do trade in the Imperium's worlds, and such is the frequent case in game play, then they also have an Imperial port of call as a second "home" for their licensing with SPA and the IMoC.

 

[Hemdian]

Originally posted by RainOfSteel:
IMTU: Civilian interstellar-capable ships fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Commerce and the SPA. All such ships are registered with the MoC. Registry with an individual world may be done, but is of no importance to the MoC, and having a registry on Terra/Solomani Rim is of no importance to the locals on Regina/Regina.

That's pretty much how I do it IMTU, too, except the Imperial Ship Registry includes both civilian and military ships. I've started to collate such a database (as an ongoing project) and it can be found here.

Regards PLST

 

[Ben W Bell]

In mine they are registered with a world somewhere, it's not that important. It only becomes an issue if it was registered outside the Imperium in which case trade taxes and fees suddenly become quite high (it's one way the Imperium uses to encourage planets to join).

 

[dancha]

Originally posted by Hemdian:
I've started to collate such a database (as an ongoing project) and it can be found here.[/QB]

Ah, wow. Now that's very cool, Peter.

Every now and then I visit your site, and your database-driven "Traveller Resource" is so inspiring. I so want to build and run something like that...

Later,
Dan

 

[aramis]

Yes, I consider registries IMTU.

1) semicanonoically, LL aboard is same as world of registry... so ship's registry matters.

2) if your ship is registered more than a few SS away, it heightens secrity checks.

3) You pay a duty to the world of registry, as part of renewal of registry. Changing registry is a long, slow, profit draining process... First you apply at new world, the ship is held until acknowledgement is recieved that the origin world has accepted the change, and then the transponder is changed to reflect the now registered change. All that while, IMTU, the ship must remain docked.

4) Specific worlds may make additional claims upon various ships registered out of themselves. So, if you are registering out of Wypoc, IMTU, expect that you'll have to have security cams and anything on the ships BBS is public domain.

Extra-imperial registered ships more than 2 jumps past the border will be siezed, searched in detail, and then returned if no problems.. Dual registry is available for friendly powers...

Extra imperial ships more than 2 SS from the border will be siezed unless dual registered... to protect the jobs of imperial shippers...