Making CSV file visible in QGIS

Question

I am using QGIS.
I have a .csv file containing 3 pieces of information on each row; name, longitude and latitude.
I would like to turn each row of the .csv file into a vector point.

The file will load into QGIS when I open it as a vector layer, but whatever I do, the screen remains blank.

Here is the metadata for the file:

General:
Storage type of this layer: CSV
Source for this layer: G:/VECTOR FILES for qgis/Maritime Traffic Visualisation/ships2.csv
Geometry type of the features in this layer: No geometry
The number of features in this layer: 20189
Editing capabilities of this layer: Add Features
Extents:
In layer spatial reference system units : unknown extent
Layer Spatial Reference System: +proj=longlat +datum=WGS84 +no_defs

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Here are the first 10 rows:

name    lon lat
NAPOLEON I  -79.5231    8.66208
ZZ-9 VERTROUWEN 3.91968 51.64689
MIN LONG YU 66628   118.4183    24.12905
ZZ-5 CONSTANT PETRUS    3.92033 51.64691
MIN JIN YU 8401 118.574 24.33855
MIN LONG YU 60209   118.4849    24.15916
JINTANGYU03817  117.7681    39.07499
GOLDEN SCEPTRE PD50 -1.7716 57.5045
MIN  LONG  YU  62503    118.4402    24.27062
THILANT 4.43238 51.88438
VIKING  4.431762    51.23607
TYCHA   4.12002 51.9541
ILHAN AGA   27.981  43.199
ANKIE   -0.7144283  53.60629

Answer 1

Use Add delimited text layer instead of Add vector layer. It will recognize the lat/lon columns and create a point layer.

Add vector layer uses GDAL to open files. If you want to open your CSV with this tool, follow the instructions in Reading CSV containing spatial information.