4.1 The Ship Safety Record is an electronic database of information pertaining to a specific vessel including information related to the safe operation of the vessel and the safety of it's crew and the environment. The data is grouped and organized under the following key categories: vessel particulars, vessel status, crew requirements, crew status, voyage specific data, record of inspection, record of incidents, and corrective actions.

4.2 The Ship Safety Record is created and maintained in each instance for the primary benefit of the owner, technical manager, or operator who is required through the implementation of the ISM Code to be cognizant of such information. The information in the database is at all times the property of the owner who will maintain and control the dissemination of any and all of the information. It is expected that operators will elect to make portions of their Ship Safety Record database available to other interested parties such as flag states, class societies, and port states.14 The Ship Safety Record should provide for the implementation of several levels of electronic database security as may be required by the vessel owner or operator. The data that becomes part of the Ship Safety Record can be thought of in a number of subsets:

4.2.1 Data that is not subject to change, including particulars of the vessel, and so forth.

4.2.2 Data that is subject to change but not normally by the ship's crew.

4.2.3 Data that will be updated periodically either manually or as a result of updates to other computer systems or applications. This would include, as an example, cargo information, ballast conditions, the names/identification of crew members, and passenger details. This would also include information relative to internal inspections, maintenance records, internal audits, safety audits, and so forth.

4.3 Guides F1756 and F1757 may be used as the basis for implementation of a shipboard electronic database and ship safety record.

This guide provides a uniform format and definition of general vessel-related technical information, including ship safety data, to be used by ship owners and operators, at their option and to the extent that they consider beneficial to their operation. It is recognized that all of the data is already contained in various documents on the vessel, but normally not electronically and normally not in one location. The ship safety record is designed to provide an industry-accepted common method of identifying, maintaining, and subsequently communicating the safety-related information needed for maritime operations. The ship safety record is an electronic database of information pertaining to a specific vessel including information related to the safe operation of the vessel and the safety of its crew and the environment. The vessel particulars, vessel status, crew requirements, status of crew and persons other than passengers on board, voyage specific data, record of inspection, record of incidents and corrective actions are presented in details.