Ship chandling is one of those trades where the name is widely recognised and the scope is widely misunderstood. For anyone dealing with a chandler for the first time — a new superintendent, an operations coordinator, a shore-based buyer taking on vessel supply — here is what the job actually covers, and how to order in a way that gets a complete answer inside a port call.
What a chandler supplies
A ship chandler supplies the goods a vessel needs to keep operating: technical stores, safety equipment, deck and engine consumables, spare parts, and in many cases provisions and bonded stores. The scope is broad rather than deep. A chandler is not a specialist in any one of these categories; the value is in handling all of them against a single requisition, inside the window the vessel is alongside.
In practice a requisition usually breaks into recognisable groups. Safety and life-saving appliances — lifejackets, lifebuoys, immersion suits, escape breathing devices — are covered under marine safety equipment. Firefighting is normally handled as its own group: extinguishers, hoses, nozzles, fireman's outfits and breathing apparatus, which we cover under firefighting equipment. Deck equipment covers mooring and anchoring hardware, and the consumable end of it sits in deck and engine stores.
Engine stores are usually the most technical part of the list, because they are ordered by part number rather than description — see marine engine spare parts. Electrical and navigation items form another group, and galley and catering equipment another again.
What a chandler does not do
This is worth being clear about, because assuming otherwise costs time. A chandler supplies goods; a chandler does not certify them. Statutory servicing — liferaft servicing, extinguisher recharging and pressure testing, breathing apparatus testing, calibration of measuring equipment — has to be carried out by an approved service station, and a chandler telling you otherwise is either confused or hoping you are.
Equally, a chandler cannot make an unapproved item approved. If a lifejacket is required to carry a specific approval, that approval comes from the source. It is reasonable to ask a chandler for equipment meeting SOLAS requirements, or for MED wheelmarked items; it is not reasonable to expect them to produce a certificate for goods that do not have one.
How to write a requisition that gets a complete quote
Most incomplete quotes come from incomplete requisitions. Six things make the difference.
Vessel details. Name, IMO number, flag and vessel type. Flag matters because it can determine which approvals are acceptable. Vessel type helps a chandler sanity-check quantities — if a requisition asks for a quantity of lifejackets that does not match the vessel, it is better to query it before delivery than after.
Port and dates. Which port, expected arrival, expected departure, and the berth if known. A chandler's answer to "can you supply this" depends entirely on the window. For vessels calling at King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam, Jubail Commercial Port, King Fahd Industrial Port or Ras Tanura, the berth also affects access arrangements.
Part numbers where they exist. For engine spares this is not optional. Engine make, model, serial number and the maker's part numbers. Serial number matters because manufacturers change specifications within a model range, and a part that fits one serial block will not fit another.
The approval required, if any. State it explicitly on the line. "Lifejacket, SOLAS approved, adult" is answerable; "lifejackets, 20 pcs" is not, because the difference between a SOLAS jacket and a working lifejacket to ISO 12402 is substantial in both function and price, and they are frequently confused.
Whether equivalents are acceptable. Say so per line if it varies. Some items must be original manufacturer parts; others can be equivalents without any operational consequence. If you do not say, a chandler either quotes the expensive option throughout or makes a substitution you did not sanction.
Quantities and units. Specify the unit — piece, box, roll, metre, litre. "10 rope" is a genuine ambiguity that has produced both 10 metres and 10 coils.
Send it as a file
Requisitions are naturally tabular, and retyping them into an email body introduces errors. Send the PDF or spreadsheet as it was generated. Our enquiry form accepts file uploads for exactly this reason, and every product page carries a quote form that does the same. A requisition that arrives as a file gets priced against the original document, which means the line numbers on the quote match the line numbers on your requisition — worth more than it sounds when you are reconciling forty lines under time pressure.
What to expect back
A good quotation prices every line, including the ones that are inconvenient, and marks clearly anything that cannot be supplied. A partial quotation that silently omits eight lines is worse than useless, because you will not discover the gap until the goods arrive and the list is short.
The quote should also state, per line, whether the item offered is the original specified item or an equivalent, and it should state the approval where one applies. If those things are not on the quotation, ask before ordering rather than after.
A note on timing
The single most useful thing a vessel operator can do is send the requisition early. A list that arrives while the vessel is still on passage can be sourced properly. The same list arriving after the vessel is alongside limits everyone to whatever can be obtained immediately, which usually means more substitutions and less choice. Routine replenishment and known survey items are predictable — they do not need to be urgent.
If you have a requisition to price, send it through our maritime supply page or the contact form with vessel name, port and dates, and we will come back line by line.
Updated 6 September 2026