A mate of mine has just told me about a site that would interest almost everyone, it's called ShipAIS, it is fascinating.
http://www.shipais.com/index.php will show you a map of the UK with the sea areas and all ships that have transponders, as your pointer hovers over a ship it will tell you its name, type, destination, speed and course. If you click on it you will get additional info and a photo if available. There are two webcams, one in Liverpool bay and one on the river. I highly recommend this site, I haven't had time to explore it all but what I have seen was very well done.
Wouldn't it be good if that info could be fed into the game so that the AI ships could follow the tracks of a real vessel sailing at that time in that location.
