Maritime Terms, Abbreviations and Acronyms

Merchant Shipping Act or Mine Safety Appliances

Manchester Ship Canal; Maritime Safety Committee

Material Safety Data Sheet

Methacrylates Sector Group, a sector group of the Association of Petrochemicals Producers in Europe (APPE). For more information, click here.

Mean Sea Level

Minimum safe manning (flag states minimum approved manning for a vessel)

Marine Safety Office (U.S. Coast Guard)

A U.S. Department of Transportation program that helps to assure sufficient sealift to support the United States Armed Forces and U.S. emergency sealift needs, using commercial ships.

Marine Spill Response Corporation

Maritime Safety and Security

Measurement

Motor support vessel

Mean Time or Metric Tons

Metric Tonnes

Refers to any self-propelled tanker, i.e. tanker fitted with diesel engine for propulsion.

MTBE is not covered under the chemical code and thus is not subject to the exemptions for carriage of chemicals. MTBE has become a large trade and is often carried in oil vessels as well as chemicals ones. The product is volatile and there is no technic

Mean tidal level

Multimodal transport operator

Metric Tonnes

Marine Terminal Operators Training System

Million metric tonnes per annum

The Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002, is designed to protect ports and waterways from terrorists attacks. The law is the U.S. equivalent of the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code(ISPS), and was fully implemented on July 1, 2004. It requires vessels and port facilities to con- duct vulnerability assessments and develop security plans that may include passenger, vehicle, and baggage screening procedures; security patrols; establishing restricted areas; personnel identification procedures; access control measures; and/or installation of surveillance equipment.

Marine Technical Sub-Committee

Synonymous for all practical purposes with “Intermodal.”

General cargo ship which can also carry containers

A container frame fitted to accommodate two or more separate tanks for liquids.

A naval auxiliary Vessel for the carriage of munitions

A stationary vessel of interest preserved as a museum exhibit.

An agent that causes biological mutation

Merchant Vessel: A vessel propelled by an engine

Meter Water Column

Myristic acid (C14:0) is a saturated intermediate chain length fatty acid found mainly in coconut, palm kernel and milk fats. It is also a minor constituent of most animal and vegetable fats.

Cubic meter

North

And

North Continent

N-Butanol is a liquid alcohol, which is an important solvent for resins and lacquers. It is also used as raw materials for glycol ethers and acetate esters.

Butenes are formed during the cracking of petroleum to produce gasoline; they can also be prepared commercially by the catalytic dehydrogenation of butanes.

not East of

Not North (of)

No risk until confirmed or Net Register or Northern Range (of Ports in US)

not South of

New York Standard Time

North America or North Atlantic or Not absolutely or Nearest Approach or Not Available or Not Applicable or No Account or No Advice or Not Acceptable or Not Addressed

Not applicable / Not acceptable / Not available

Newbuilding or Northbound or Nota Bene

New building

Not east of

Not north of

Not south of

New terms (grain trade)

Not west of

Not applicable / Not acceptable / Not available

Not applicable / Not acceptable / Not available

Not always Afloat

Not Always Afloat but Safely Aground

Naphta

Naphtha is a petroleum distillate containing principally aliphatic hydrocarbons. It is the primary source from which petrochemicals are derived.

A product of crude oil or condensate refining which boils in roughly the same range as motor gasoline. In general, the naphtha distillation range spans from a bit less than 100 F, the boiling point of pentanes, through 300-400 F, depending on the intentions and needs of the refiner. The trade refers to this entire C5 to 300-400 F cut as whole or full-range naphtha. Refiners often produce two separate naphtha cuts when they distill crude, a light and a heavy fraction. They have rule-of-thumb boiling ranges of C5 through 175-200 F and 175-200 through 300-400 F. Refiners obtain naphthas from conversion units in addition to the straight-run streams from crude distillation. Catalytic crackers and cokers, in particular, produce cracked streams which boil in the naphtha range. See light naphtha, heavy naphtha, hydrocrackate, naphthenic naphtha, paraffinic naphtha, and whole naphtha.

Naphthalene is a crystalline white solid hydrocarbon, with the empirical formula C10H8. It is volatile, forming a flammable vapor. It is predominantly manufactured from coal tar, and can be converted to phthalic anhydride for the manufacture of plastics, dyes (pigments) and solvents. Naphtalene used to be the intermediate for production of indigo-blue which was the dye to color the jeans. Naphtalene is also an intermediate for the production for chemicals in the leather industry. One of the major applications of naphtaline nowadays is a sulfonated form which is used as a fluidizer in concrete and gypsum improving flowability of the concrete mixture and ultimately increasing strength of the concrete structure. A more specific application of naphtalene is the use of it as a buildingblock to produce a synthetic lubricant for car-engines. It is also used as an antiseptic and insecticide, especially in mothballs.

Hydrocarbon molecules with a carbon ring structure similar to aromatics. Naphthenes have saturated bonds rather than the unsaturated ones which characterize aromatics. Reformers make aromatics, the high-octane components they intend to produce, most easily by desaturation naphthene rings. The "N" in PONA and N+A stands for naphthenes.

High in naphthene-ring content. Lower than ordinary paraffins concentration. In some casual applications this adjective tacitly embraces aromatics as well as naphthenes, as in naphthenic naphtha.

A naphtha stream with a comparatively high concentration of naphthenes and aromatics. The terms reforming naphtha and N+A naphtha also identify this class of hydrocarbons. In general, American and Japanese companies regard a stream as naphthenic or highly naphthenic if it has a naphthenes plus aromatics concentration of 40 percent or more. Europeans use a lower standard-in the mid-30's. Naphthenic naphthas normally find use as reformer feedstock.

Navigation and Routing Sub-Committee

In December 2004 the President directed the Secretaries of the Department of Defense and Home- land Security to lead the Federal effort to develop a comprehensive National Strategy for Maritime Security, to better integrate and synchronize the existing Department–level strategies and ensure their effective and efficient implementation. The strategy includes eight supporting plans to address the specific threats and challenges of the maritime environment and combined they present a compre- hensive national effort to promote global economic stability and protect legitimate activities while preventing hostile or illegal acts within the maritime domain.

An antioxidant which is naturally present in fat, e.g. tocopherols and tocotrienols. Their presence confers good keeping properties on the fat. Most vegetable oils have a relatively high content of tocopherol and tocotrienols.

Colorless, highly flammable gaseous hydrocarbon consisting primarily of methane, ethane, and small amounts of heavier gaseous hydrocarbon compounds such as propane. Ethane and propane, also called natural gas liquids (NGL), are converted into ethylene and propylene by steam cracking. It is a type of petroleum that commonly occurs in association with crude oil.

The pentanes-and-heavier fraction produced by processing wet gas in an LNG or LPG plant. Such materials can substitute for paraffinic naphthas in a number of uses including, depending on the qualities of individual streams, gasoline blending and steam cracker feedstock.

Distance of one minute of longitude at the equator, approximately 6,076.115. The metric equivalent is 1852.

It is a naval organization with members who are trained to establish and provide advice for safe pas- sage of merchant ships worldwide, during times of peace, tension, crisis and war. NCAGS personnel act as a liaison between military commanders and the civil authorities. During war, the NCAGS orga- nization may be responsible for establishing a convoy.

Any small undefined naval vessels

The art and science of conducting a ship safely from one point to another

Navigational Warning Service Receiver

Nota Bene: "Now, pay attention to this!" A way of steering readers' attention toward something particularly important.

Nitrile-butadiene-rubber. A synthetic rubber used in many applications, including the automotive industry.

National Cargo Bureau

National Chemical Emergency Centre

National Committee on International Trade Documentation.

National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan

Non-conformance report (ISM)

Norwegian Continental Shelf

North Coast South America

No commercial value

No Deadfreight For Charterers Account Provided Minimum Quantity Supplied

Net deadweight

Not Exceeding

Not East (of)

The opposite to Spring Tides

Not Elsewhere Classified

Ship Stability: Exists when G is above M. The vessel will list to either side and will not remain upright. A list due to a negative initial stability is known as an angle of loll.

Negotiations

A document of title (such as a draft, promissory note, check, or bill of lading) transferable from one person to another in good faith for a consideration. Non–negotiable bills of lading are known as “straight consignment.” Negotiable bills are known as “order b/l’s.”

Not elsewhere included

Not East of but including Greece

Not east of but including Greece and excluding Albania, Yoguslavia and former Yoguslavia

Not east of but including Greece and excluding Yoguslavia and former Yoguslavia and Albania

type of general cargo such as cars, timber, steel, etc..

Not elsewhere provided

Not Elsewhere Shown or Not Elsewhere Specified

Articles packed so that one rests partially or entirely within another, thereby reducing the cubic–foot displacement.