Free tool
Maritime AI Prompt Pack
The difference between a useless AI answer and a useful one is the prompt. These are role-based prompts for the people who run ships — each written to force the model to show its arithmetic, cite what it relies on, and state its assumptions so an experienced officer can check the output in seconds. Copy, adapt the bracketed fields, use.
Before you paste anything: treat public AI tools as an external party. Anonymise vessel names, voyage details and commercial terms — or use a deployment your company controls. The analytical value of these prompts survives redaction.
Shipowner / CEO
Money, risk and priority — not technical detail. The real question: “Where am I losing money, and what should I act on first?”
Here are my fleet’s last month of technical and commercial summaries. Rank the vessels by combined operational and commercial risk, and give one sentence of reasoning per vessel.
List the maritime regulations most likely to affect a fleet of [number] [vessel type]s trading [region] in the next 24 months, ordered by financial impact. Cite the instrument for each.
A [age]-year-old [vessel type] needs [survey/docking scope]. Lay out the invest-vs-sell decision as a table: costs to keep trading 5 more years vs realistic sale scenario. State every assumption you make.
Estimate the combined EU ETS and FuelEU exposure for a fleet of [number] [vessel type]s on [trade pattern], and show the arithmetic step by step so my team can check it.
Turn these weekly technical reports into a one-page management summary: top 5 issues, money at stake, decisions needed from me, deadlines.
Based on these reports, which vessel has the highest near-term risk of detention, breakdown or off-hire — and what single action reduces it most?
Managing Director / Fleet Director
Turns scattered departmental reporting into decisions. The real question: “Which issue is going to land on my desk as a crisis?”
Compare these four vessels’ weekly reports. Show critical deviations only — anything that moved for the worse since last week — grouped by vessel.
Compared with last month, what deteriorated across the fleet? Answer as a ranked list with the evidence line quoted from the source report.
From these reports, find issues that recur across more than one vessel of the same superintendent. Present as a table: issue, vessels, first seen, still open?
Prepare the five topics I must raise at this month’s board meeting from these fleet reports, each with one number that makes the point.
Read these vessel reports and flag weak signals: items mentioned in passing that have not become failures yet but follow a worsening trend.
Our technical budget overran by [X]%. Using these cost records, attribute the overrun: maintenance, fuel, unplanned repairs or purchasing — with figures.
Technical Manager / Superintendent
Wants a second superintendent who catches bad news early. The real question: “Can I catch it before it becomes a breakdown?”
Analyse these main engine performance parameters. Identify values outside typical ranges for a [engine type] and rank them by urgency of investigation. Do not invent limits — say when a maker limit is needed.
Exhaust gas temperatures across units differ by [X]°C at [load]. List the plausible causes in order of likelihood, and the first onboard check for each.
Lube oil consumption has risen over three months from [X] to [Y] l/day. Build a diagnostic checklist from most likely to least likely cause.
Sort this PMS overdue list by criticality: safety-critical, class-related, redundancy-loss, routine. Justify each top-5 placement.
Draft a dry dock work scope from this defect list and last docking report: group by trade, flag long-lead items, mark anything that can safely wait one more cycle.
Review this maker service report. Separate: work that is clearly necessary, work that needs evidence, and items that may fall under warranty — with the sentence that justifies each call.
Compare these two spare part quotations technically and commercially: genuine vs OEM-equivalent, delivery, exclusions, hidden costs. Recommend one and state the risk of the cheaper option.
DPA / HSQE / Vetting Manager
Documents, audits and inspection readiness. The real question: “How do we come out of the inspection clean?”
For this SIRE 2.0 observation, draft root cause, immediate cause, corrective action and preventive action — then critique your own draft: would a vetting reviewer call it superficial?
We have a SIRE 2.0 inspection in 14 days on a [vessel type]. Build a day-by-day preparation plan covering hardware walkthroughs, documentation, and crew interview readiness.
Generate the follow-up questions a SIRE 2.0 inspector could ask the chief engineer about [system/procedure], with strong example answers.
From our last three PSC reports, list recurring deficiencies and the systemic weakness each points to. One line each.
Our next port call is [port]. Based on published Paris/Tokyo MoU categories, which deficiency areas deserve a focused pre-arrival check for a [vessel type]?
Review this observation response before submission: strengthen the weakest sentence, remove anything that admits liability beyond the finding, keep it factual.
Commercial / Chartering Manager
Voyage economics and contract risk. The real question: “Is this voyage actually making money?”
Calculate this voyage’s true profitability after bunkers, port costs and EU ETS. Show the arithmetic and state every rate assumption separately so I can swap in actuals.
Under this charterparty wording, who bears the EU ETS cost — owner or charterer? Quote the clause language your answer depends on, and say what is ambiguous.
Assess this technical failure from an off-hire claim perspective: what does the charterer need to prove, what evidence should we preserve today?
Compare the [route A] and [route B] routings for cost and risk: fuel, days, war-risk premium, ETS scope difference. Present as a decision table.
Review this demurrage claim and list its weak points: laytime calculation, notice validity, exceptions clauses — with the supporting clause for each.
Summarise this charterer’s risk profile from the information I paste: payment history signals, operational disputes, sanctions exposure. Mark what is verified vs inferred.
IT / Cyber Manager
Keeps the ship’s door from opening to the wrong party. The real question: “Are we handing vessel data to the wrong people?”
We are evaluating a maritime software vendor. Build a due-diligence question list covering: data ownership, hosting jurisdiction, OT/IT separation, offboarding and data return.
Which shipboard systems are typically most exposed to cyber attack, and what is the first low-cost mitigation for each? Frame per IACS E26/E27 categories.
List the practical signs of AIS spoofing or GPS jamming a bridge team can detect, and the immediate verification steps.
Draft the questions to ask before uploading any vessel data to an external AI service: retention, training use, access, deletion, jurisdiction.
Review this vendor’s security claims. Which are verifiable certificates and which are marketing language? List what evidence to request for each claim.
Questions
Can I paste confidential vessel data into public AI tools?
Treat every public AI chat as an external party. Anonymise vessel names and commercial terms, or use a deployment your company controls. Several prompts here work on structure alone — you can redact identifiers and keep the analytical value.
Are AI answers reliable enough for technical decisions?
They are a fast second opinion, not an authority. Good prompts force the model to show arithmetic, cite the clause or rule it relies on, and say what it cannot know — every prompt in this pack is written that way. Verify against maker documentation, class rules and the regulation text before acting.
Why do these prompts ask the AI to state assumptions?
Because the failure mode of AI in maritime work is confident invention: a limit, a rate or a clause that does not exist. Forcing assumptions into the open turns the output into something an experienced officer can check in seconds.
Keep this result working for you
Leave your email for the preparation checklist and the regulatory developments that move dates like these — no spam, only what matters.
Get it by emailStay Ahead of Important Maritime Developments
Leave your email to receive selected maritime developments and updates from Apeks Tech. No spam — only what matters.