American Ship Hull numbers

The Hull number, and Hull Identification Number (short: HIN), is the Hull Identification Number ( Hull Hull engl. ) Of a ship.

The Hull number, originally introduced as a highly visible number, applied to both sides of the hull, used to distinguish between similar looking ships of a fleet. It is used for example in warships and fishing fleets.

For the numbers, there are different national and regional nomenclatures.

Meanwhile, a Hull Identification Number has been introduced for sport boats, which is also often referred to as Hull number. It is used to uniquely identify a ship, similar to a chassis number of motor vehicles. This number must be placed to the right at the rear. The number consists of twelve or fourteen characters, depending on whether the boat is purchased or used in the European Union. Two different formats are used:

  • ABC12345K899 (USCG format since 1984 for North America required )
  • U.S. ABC12345K899 (ISO format since 1998 for the EU space, recreational craft up to 25 m length required ). It differs from the U.S. format only by the leading country code of the country of origin.
  • Name of ship
  • Identifier
Naval fleet
402789
de