Structural failure is a major cause of the wreckage of ships, vessels and tankers and causes loss of life and pollution of the seas and coastal waters of Europe as follows: §In 2004, the total amount of oil and oil products transported by sea reached the two billion-tonne/year mark (more than 40 % of total maritime traffic). The European Union accounts for 27 % of this traffic, with 90 % of Europe’s oil arriving by sea. •Over 2.5 billion tonnes of oil is used around the world every year, and 3 million tonnes is discharged every year into the oceans as a result of oil carrying vessel and tanker failures. Tanker accidents typically account for 12% of all oil pollution. The Exxon Valdez incident released 40 000 tonnes of oil and caused an oil slick that covered 2,600 square miles. After the tanker Braer spilt; 85 000 tonnes of oil was released with a clean up cost of 16 billion Euros. •Every year about 1 000 people die as a result of ship structural failures. The objective of this project is to develop new and novel ultrasonic linear phased array techniques, sensors and systems for finding defects and corrosion in safety critical areas of ships and tankers without taking the vessel out of the water. The Ship-Inspector technology will help operators, classification societies and regulatory agencies worldwide to manage risk more effectively. The ShipInspector Consortium will disseminate the technology and associated training to the SMEs represented by the participant SME-AGs. There are 12,000 SMEs involved in the €50 billion inspection and maintenance sector. Furthermore, the Ship-Inspector technology will reduce the risk to which inspectors are exposed whilst working on ships. Note that shipyard and marine work has an injury-accident rate more than twice that of construction and general industry. This project will drastically reduce injuries and deaths to SME workers in the ship maintenance and inspection industry.