Does not hoisting any flag while being underway mean that a ship is stateless?
All vessels over a certain length are required to be registered. So the ship belongs to the country it's registered to. Even my 22 foot boat that has never left Lake Michigan is registered. And if your boat isn't registered the cost guard will give you a ticket. I think they can even impound a boat for not being registered.
War ships are never Stateless. Even those sunk in Roman times. If they can figure out who owned them. Cargo ships 20 years or more depending on cargo, when insurance claims are payed, and when the insurers drop claims and the owners. Some ships sunk in the 15hundreds still have claims against them if they were carrying Government cargo. Like gold. Yes and no. If it is beyond the 15 mile limit and carrying contraband. It can be considered Stateless. And sank. Prohibition era law. On Rum runners. For not flying a flag. This is why every time they find a sunk ship and bring things up. It is in court for 5 years or more to figure this out. All considered no flag, no name, no insurance, no cargo, no way to figure out were it came from, and no one around to tell you. There was one just recently found of Texas that might be. By the cargo they figure she was a free booter from the 17 hundreds.
It means the flag is in the laundry.
