# Need help cross-referencing ports a ship has called on

**URL:** <https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/need-help-cross-referencing-ports-a-ship-has-called-on/12498>\
**Category:** Professional Mariner Forum\
**Created:** [April 15, 2014, 2:00pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/need-help-cross-referencing-ports-a-ship-has-called-on/12498 "2014-04-15T14:00:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ryan.patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5daacb/32.png) [@ryan.patch](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/ryan.patch)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 2:00pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/need-help-cross-referencing-ports-a-ship-has-called-on/12498/1 "2014-04-15T14:00:32Z")

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Hello, all -

Please excuse this rudimentary post, as I have very little experience in the merchant marine world. I am actually a journalist and documentary filmmaker, and I am currently investigating some smuggling that’s going on in Africa, trying to get a good idea of how much rice is moving from Thailand to West Africa as a whole. As such, I am trying to pinpoint ships moving between ports in Thailand and ports in West Africa.

I have played around for a while on [Marinetraffic.com](http://Marinetraffic.com), but as ships don’t go straight from Thailand to W Africa, it’s difficult to track.

Is there a way to search, for instance, for all ships that have called on two different ports in the last year, or something like that? Basically cross-referencing two ports connected by which ships?

Thanks for any thoughts,

Ryan

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**Author:** ![cappy208](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@cappy208](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/cappy208)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 3:27pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/need-help-cross-referencing-ports-a-ship-has-called-on/12498/2 "2014-04-16T15:27:50Z")

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You would have to collate it yourself. But most large ports have a ‘list of arrivals’ ‘list of departures’ and a ‘list of on port vessels’ some even list as ‘anticipated arrival’ list. But, Most are difficult to find, or require registering to access their system.

The only thing I would suspect would be that companies aren’t wild about putting arrivals departures and origin/destination out there since the competition would get a leg up on where to compete. Good luck with your search.

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**Author:** ![ryan.patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5daacb/32.png) [@ryan.patch](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/ryan.patch)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 3:47pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/need-help-cross-referencing-ports-a-ship-has-called-on/12498/3 "2014-04-16T15:47:24Z")

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Got it. That’s what I was afraid of!

Thanks so much!

R

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**Author:** ![z-drive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c37758/32.png) [@z-drive](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/z-drive)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 6:29pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/need-help-cross-referencing-ports-a-ship-has-called-on/12498/4 "2014-04-16T18:29:48Z")

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Container lines publish their schedules in most cases. Good place to start perhaps.