The first time a vessel is documented, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) generates a record attached to the file, which is normally referred to as “Abstract of Title” or “General Index”. Apart from the basic information about the vessels, all of the transactions in which the boat was involved like changes of ownership, mortgages, or liens are included in the document. In addition to that, it may also include notational information about the boat’s documentation status. Let us tell you some more details about this type of documentation.
Information Shown on an Abstract of Title
An abstract of title is unique to the maritime industry when it comes to forming and function: it is the only way of getting a complete synopsis of the historical events of a ship. In fact, the possibility of getting an abstract of the title is one of the many advantages that documenting your boat with the US Coast Guard will give to your vessel.
Typically, the document doesn’t show the vessel’s dimensions, model, and year or tonnage. In the case that an applicant provided the place and year it was built, it will probably come up. All of the vessel names the boat has had will be included in the abstract. The hailing port, however, will not. The HIN number may not be shown on older abstracts, and the official number that the Coast Guard assigned to your vessels will always be present, as this is the primary item the USCG uses to identify the ship. Keep in mind that trade endorsements are not shown in the abstract of the title: only in the certificate of documentation.
What is the Purpose of Getting an Abstract of the Title?
One of the primary functions of the abstract of the title is to identify the current owner of the boat accordingly. The vessel can be owned by a single person, multiple individuals, and even a corporation or partnership. As opposed to the certificate of documentation, the abstract of title does show the exact methods of ownership, and the transfer of ownership that took place since the document was last issued.
The result of this is that you can obtain a clear chain of ownership from the vessel. If a boat was USCG-documented since it was built, the abstract of the title will show you all of the ownership transfers that were made to the vessel. Being able to know this information will revalue the cost of the ship, given that you will have the complete history of the boat. State registration, for instance, does not allow you to get this type of information. The details you are shown only include the period in which the vessel was registered at a federal level.
Getting your Boat Documentation With Our Help
As you may have noticed there is a list of documents you can get through our site. The abstract of the title is no exception, and you can get it with the help of the Maritime Documentation representatives or on the US Coast Guard website. The advantage of getting the document from our site is that the abstract might include digitized documents or hard copies, and some references and abbreviations can be hard to understand. If that happens, our experienced staff will definitely sort it out for you. Contact us today for anything else we may assist you with.