It would be very difficult for one entity to keep track of the hundreds of changes in fate that befall the tens of thousands of IMO-worthy vessels on the face of the planet each year. Even though it has its lapses, I have to praise the efforts of the staff of Grosstonnage for what they do manage.
Ships reported as sold for scrapping get listed as dead, as do ships reported lost to casualties. Sure a few are wrongly reported, resold back into service, or salvaged from unlikely situations, but those exceptions are few and far between. Anyways, I'd rather see them listed as dead than be left listed in service, as many long-gone vessels unfortunately are, in most cases either from obscure corners of the world with limited shipping records, or small vessels that don't make many waves when they sink or are scrapped.
In turn, these errors in reality are where we as a community come in. With our help reporting errors to Grosstonnage, the database can be as accurate as possible. Still, even we, the membership as a whole, can never know of every ship that ends operations (or doesn't), but the more people that are involved, the higher the percentage of accuracy can be.
Kind Regards,
Kyle