The Ship Selection pane is used to select a ship.
If the Ship Selection pane isn't displayed, show it by selecting Show Ship Selection in the Panes menu item from the View menu.

Scroll through the list of available ships using the mouse or keyboard cursor keys. The blue highlight indicates the ship about to be selected. A currently active ship is shown in a lighter shade of blue.

The flag next to the ship’s name identifies its service. Ships have been divided into the following services: Royal NavyUnited States NavyUnited States Revenue Service/Coast GuardUnited States Coast & Geodetic SurveyUnited States Fish Commission

When ships consist of multiple parts, the available periods are shown as a bulleted list. These periods can be individually excluded.

Select a ship by clicking the Select button, or by double-clicking the ship in the list.

To narrow down the long list of available ships, you can search by typing the name in the Search by name box.
The search is not case sensitive and will match any part of a name.

The list can also be filtered by enabling or disabling ship services.
Click the Services button to select services.

The window shows the services to choose from, with the number of ships available (in brackets) after each service.
When you have finished selecting and/or deselecting the services you want, click anywhere outside the window and the ship list will be updated to show only the selected services.

When name and/or service filters are active, a message in the top-right corner will show how many ships of the total available ships are shown.