The cruise inventory is a catalogue of UK research vessel activities dating from 1947 to the present day. Currently, it contains entries for 15942 cruises from 751 individual ships. It also contains details of non-UK marine research activities in British territorial waters.
It is a valuable resource for scientists, program managers, and data managers to provide information on who has collected what, where, and when, in addition to details of measurements taken and samples collected.
The information is assembled using the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) Cruise Summary Report (CSR, formerly ROSCOP) forms. These are completed by the Principal Scientific Officer (PSO) or an appropriate ship's officer for each research cruise or voyage. Forms from UK activities are submitted to the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC). Information on non-UK cruises comes from Notification of Proposed Research Cruise (NPRC) documents submitted to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).
Whereas CSRs provide a summary of cruise activities, more detailed cruise information is provided in the Cruise Report which is produced in the months following the end of the cruise.