Phil,
Thanks For your suggestions,have been giving Equasis a go.
The problem is the search criteria,ships name or IMO number,know either of these and
the MMSI number is listed.
Problem arises when the ships transponder is programmed to transmit the ships name
only once or twice daily,have found some small craft that never transmit their name.
This leaves you with the problem,you know the MMSI number,you don't know the ships name
and a number don't transmit their callsign frequently either.
You are probably now totally confused by what I'm whaffling on about,
But thanks a lot for your most welcome suggestion
Cheers Doug.