| ACFN | American Committee of Flags of Necessity |
| ACN | amity, commerce, and navigation |
| AMEX | American Stock Exchange |
| ANAVE | Asociación de Navieros Españoles |
| AOTC | American Overseas Tanker Corporation |
| Bapico | Baltic-American Petroleum Import Company |
| CIA | Central Intelligence Agency |
| CMB | Compagnie Maritime Belge |
| DAPG | Deutsch-Amerikanische Petroleum Gesellschaft, Hamburg |
| DIS | Danish International Ship Register |
| EUSC | effective U.S. control |
| FACS | Federation of American-Controlled Shipping |
| FCN | friendship, commerce, and navigation |
| GIS | German International Shipping Register |
| ICJ | International Court of Justice |
| ILC | International Law Commission |
| IMCO | Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization |
| IRI | International Registries Inc. |
| ITC | International Trust Company |
| ITF | International Transport Workers Federation |
| JCS | Joint Chiefs of Staff |
| LISCR | Liberian International Shipping Corporate Registry |
| MAR | Madeira Open Shipping Register |
| MarAd | Maritime Administration |
| MEBA | Marine Engineers Beneficial Association |
| MOU | memorandum of understanding |
| MSC | Military Sealift Command |
| NATO | North Atlantic Treaty Organization |
| NIS | Norwegian International Ship Registry |
| NLRB | National Labor Relations Board |
| OSG | Overseas Shipholding Group |
| OSS | Office of Strategic Services |
| ÖTV | Öffentliche Dienste, Transport und Verkehr |
| PCA | Permanent Court of Arbitration |
| ULCC | ultra large crude carrier |
| UNCTAD | UN Commission on Trade and Development |
| VLCC | very large crude carrier |
| WSA | War Shipping Administration |
