Template:Cite ship register/doc

This template is used to create uniformly formatted citations for a number of different on-line ship registries. The template is a meta-template.

Usage
This:

Will put this in your references list:
 * 1.^

When adding new ship registries, it may not always be possible to construct a persistent URL which takes a reader directly to the right entry on a register's website. In this case, a generic URL should be provided that points to the register's front page or search feature. Database URLs also change from time to time; if the link results in an error, notify the editors maintaining the template on the talk page.
 * Parameters:
 * register ship register or database. Case-insensitive abbreviation of the registry's name – see the table for supported registries.
 * id unique number or ID of the ship within the registry or database. For instance, in the DNV database, Icon of the Seas' is identified by its five-digit "DNV id" 38545.
 * shipname name of the ship. The template automatically italicizes the shipname. Prefixes (MV, SS, etc.) should be omitted unless they are part of the ship's name as shown in the cited database.
 * access-date Full date when URL was accessed; use the same format as other access and archive dates in the citations; do not wikilink. Can be hidden by registered editors. Access dates in references should all have the same format – either the format used for publication dates, or YYYY-MM-DD. See MOS:DATEUNIFY.
 * url-status, archive-url, archive-date See Template:Cite web § Using "archive-url" and "archive-date" (and optionally "url-status") for webpages that have been archived

You can also use the alias :

Why this template exists

 * Because it's hard for editors to remember lots of different register-specific citation templates, hence many of them (as of October 2012) have very few transclusions. No cite templates have been developed for other registries, so if editors cite them at all they probably use cite web.
 * Also, some existing register-specific templates appear to populate cite web parameters in a suboptimal fashion; shipping registers are a rather special case out of all the types of websites we might cite, so not all of the fields in cite web's will fit perfectly. The citations we generate look a bit like Harvard-style citations, but it's important to remember that the last date an editor looked at a register is not the same as a publishing date. If you want to improve these citations across the board, it's easier to do it here.