Procedure for Ship Familiarization for New Crew Members on Ships

New crew members joining a ship must be familiarized with their duties and important information about the ship. This is to ensure that the new people onboard ship understand their responsibilities thoroughly before commencing their duties.

It is the duty of the master of the ship to ensure that each new crew member is given proper familiarization training to ensure personal safety and well-being of the ship.

The master would designate a qualified person in charge of training the new crew members of the ship.

Though all crew personnel joining the ship have to do STCW training, there are several specific instructions, which are important for safe operations on ships.

ship crew

The main aim of the familiarization training is to make the new crew aware of important safety procedures that are to be carried out on ships while working or during an emergency situations. It is the duty of the officer in charge of the training to train the new crew regarding:

Apart from the above mentioned points, the officer must also ensure that the new crew members know the following:

Familiarization of duties                                                                 

It is a normal procedure on board ships that the new crew member will be given familiarization of his or her duties by the person who is being relieved.

Ship crew

The familiarization training will include:

  • Duties to be performed by the new crew member
  • Specific equipment to be operated and maintained
  • Ship specific watch keeping duties
  • Any particular instruction regarding machinery or ship parts which the new crew member should know
  • If the new member belongs to the deck side, he or she will be familiarized with navigation equipment , GMDSS , steering system, mooring equipment, cargo handling equipment etc.
  • If the new member belongs to the engine side, he or she will be familiarized with the designated machinery, maintenance procedures, and watch keeping procedures

Apart from the watch keeping procedure at sea and at port, the new crew members would also be briefed about any standing orders from the chief engineer or captain.

Other Safety Instructions

Apart from duty and safety instructions, the officer in charge of the familiarization training would instruct the new crew member regarding important issues such as

It is to note that training on life saving appliances and fire fighting appliances must be completed as soon as possible and not later than 2 weeks after joining the ship.

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About Author

Raunek Kantharia is a marine engineer turned maritime writer and entrepreneur. After a brief stint at the sea, he founded Marine Insight in 2010. Apart from managing Marine Insight, he also writes for a number of maritime magazines and websites.

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5 Comments

  1. Very helpful for our feature study and working environment. …..Thank you very much. …

  2. Above information was very useful. One question remain with me. All crew shall familiar with operation of emergency equipment such as starting emergency generator-starting emergency fire pump or release of life boat ? or just for assigned crew are required?

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