Portsmouth port and ships, live

The Index rates Portsmouth Harbour a medium-sized coastal harbour behind tide gates. It lists yards for major repairs and a dry dock there. Its entrance channel is at least 9.4 m deep.

• Portsmouth Harbour1 km from the centreMedium-sized harbour

Warships often sail with AIS switched off, so most of a navy is missing from the live map. In 24 hours of AIS recorded Oct 12 – 19, the map heard 99 different ships within 10 km of Portsmouth.

• NGA’s World Port Index rates a harbour by its area, facilities and wharf space when it was last surveyed, not by its traffic, so a busy terminal can be rated small. Where it doesn’t know about a facility it says so, and only what it marks as there is listed here.
• AIS is heard by receivers on shore, so coverage follows where they are: ships far out at sea, or off coasts without one, don’t show. Warships and some others switch it off, and a ship’s type and destination are typed in by its crew.
• Harbours from NGA’s World Port Index (Pub. 150), downloaded on Oct 19, 2026. The major ports and chokepoints are the map’s own reference list.

How the layers work, where their data comes from and what they can’t tell you: Live ship tracker, Shipping chokepoints