There may be one of two reasons if you can see a ship offshore which does not show on the map:

1)  There is no station currently monitoring the local traffic and reporting the details to marinetraffic.com.  There are reporting stations close to Craster at Alnmouth or the RNLI lifeboat station in Seahouses.  If both of those stations are off air, the next receiving stations are near Berwick on Tweed to the North and Blyth to the South. We are close to the edge of the range from both locations so that vessels offshore at Craster are not always reported.

2)  The map is only updated every 10 minutes during which time ships we typically see along this coast may travel 2 to 3 miles.  If you can see a ship offshore which does not show on the map, you may be able to zoom out until you find a ship travelling in the right direction.  If you click on the ship a pop-up appears which shows how long it is since the ship's location was reported as well as details of the vessel, its destination and sometimes a photograph or two.  This may help you to decide which ship you can see on the horizon.

Clicking on the ship moves the map so that the ship is at the centre of the view.  To restore the map to its original size and position if you have used the zoom or clicked on a ship, refresh or reload the view or click on this link.

Below there is a selection of photographs we have collected over the years.  These photographs change each time the page is refreshed.  To see the full collection, please click here.