United States of America Flag Vessels
7,988 vessels registered under the United States of America flag
United States of America Maritime Fleet Overview
United States of America has 7,988 registered vessels tracked on MarineRadar. The fleet primarily consists of Tug (269), Local Vessel (121), Pleasure Craft (106), Passenger (80) and Other (79). Track all United States of America-flagged ships with live AIS positions and real-time maritime data.
About the United States of America Flag
Registry Authority
The United States flag is administered by the US Coast Guard's National Vessel Documentation Center under the Department of Homeland Security, with commercial regulation by the Federal Maritime Commission and Maritime Administration (MARAD). The US-flag fleet is small in international terms — around 80–90 ocean-going commercial ships — but heavily protected.
Why Ships Register in the United States
Three statutes drive US-flag registration: the Jones Act (1920) requires US-flag, US-built, US-crewed ships for domestic cabotage trade; the Maritime Security Program (MSP) pays a stipend to operators willing to make their US-flag ships available to the Department of Defense in wartime; and US-government cargo preference rules require a portion of federally generated cargo to move on US-flag ships.
Notable Operators
Crowley Maritime, Matson, Pasha Group, TOTE, American President Lines (US-flag arm of CMA CGM), Maersk Line Limited, Liberty Maritime, and Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG) operate the bulk of the US-flag international and Jones Act fleets.
Trade Routes
US-flag Jones Act ships dominate the protected trades between the US mainland and Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Guam. International US-flag ships under MSP run worldwide military-related trades, while Liberty Maritime and others carry US-government food-aid cargoes.
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