BELLBOOK / NOTES FROM SHIP TO SHORE
PSC inspections, ISM audits, crew HR and payroll, voyage reporting. Where shipping companies get stuck, written against the regulation text and the actual codes.
EU MRV requires cargo carried to be monitored for every voyage. Whether a ship type outside passenger, ro-ro and container ships records cargo carried as mass, as volume or as deadweight carried, set out from Article 3 as a table.
Who do pilots and port authorities report an anomaly seen on board to, and what goes into the report. The path by which that report becomes grounds for an additional inspection and a more detailed inspection, traced through Article 23 and the annexes.
An STCW medical certificate runs at most two years, one year under 18, and continues up to three months when it expires on a voyage. Where Regulation I/9 and Code section A-I/9 let a Party give discretion, where none is allowed for look-out duties on deck, the figures in table A-I/9, the colour vision interval and the language of the certificate.
An electronic record book is a record book only once the Administration has approved it. Incomplete entries that cannot be saved, personal logins and a verification step, automatic backup with a digital signature, and the declaration and printouts an inspector can ask for.
ISM Code chapter 14 sets the Interim DOC at 12 months and the Interim SMC at 6 months, with a 6-month extension in special cases. The three grounds for issue, the six items verified before issue, and why the office assessment comes before the ship.
Deck and engine watch ratings need 16 years and 6 months, able seafarers need 18 years and seagoing service earned after the watch rating qualification. The application thresholds, the two tiers of requirements, the periods shortened by training and the transitional provisions of STCW Regulations II/4, II/5, III/4 and III/5 in one table.
The amendment that makes the two seas new emission control areas enters into force on 2026-03-01. How the day the sulphur limit bites and the construction date that triggers NOx Tier III differ from sea to sea, taken from the text.
How many survey types the harmonized system has and which date each attaches to, why a renewal survey completed within 3 months before expiry loses no validity, and where the new certificate starts after an extension, worked through a hypothetical example.
The electro-technical officer (ETO) and the electro-technical rating (ETR) share the same application threshold but differ in the kind of certificate and the seagoing service required. A comparison of the service routes, the training record book, the transitional provisions and the suitably qualified person clause under STCW Regulations III/6 and III/7 and Code section A-III/6.
From 2024-07-01 heavy fuel oil may not be used or carried as fuel in Arctic waters. Ships with protected fuel tanks and a coastal State's own ships have until 2029-07-01. Regulation 43A from resolution MEPC.329(76) set out.
Who is allowed to service lifeboats, rescue boats, launching appliances and release gear at each interval, what the annual and five-year examinations test, how reports and the statement of fitness are kept, and on what conditions a ship operator can be the service provider.
Standard A4.3 places risk evaluation inside the safety and health programme and makes statistics its basis. The five steps in the ILO guidelines, the order of preventive measures, and the work restrictions for seafarers under 18.
The Annex applies to ships on international voyages of 400 gross tonnage or carrying more than 15 persons, the certificate is capped at five years with the renewal survey timing fixing the start date, and discharge splits at 3 and 12 nautical miles with a 4 knot condition.
Who requests and who completes a Declaration of Security, which records of ship security plan activities stay on board, in what language and for how long, and which part of the drill frequency is actually mandatory.
The enclosed space entry recommendations IMO revised in 2025 expect the register, the risk assessment and the atmosphere tests to be complete before a permit is issued. The four readings, the eight-hour cap and the three signatures.
Plastics and cooking oil may never go overboard, food wastes split at 3 and 12 nautical miles, and cargo residues turn on the HME criteria and the shipper's declaration. The conditions outside and inside special areas set side by side in a table.
Which verifications produce the International Ship Security Certificate, how long it lasts, where the new five years start depending on when the renewal verification is completed, and why a change of Company kills the certificate.
The basic and advanced certificates required of masters, chief mates and watch officers on ships operating in polar waters. Three dates, who each certificate calls, the two-month service requirement, the two transitional routes and five-year maintenance.
Placards start at 12 m in length, the management plan at 100 gross tonnage or 15 persons, and the record book at 100 gross tonnage since MEPC.360(79). The three thresholds, the entry items, the two-year retention and the electronic record book condition.
STCW Regulation I/4 limits the control officer to three things, verifying certificates, checking safe manning, and assessing competence only on clear grounds. The four clear grounds, the lines an assessment cannot cross, and the five deficiencies that lead to detention.
Training for ships using low-flashpoint fuel splits into basic and advanced by designated safety duties and fuel responsibility. One month of service with three bunkering operations, the conditions for substituting liquefied gas tanker qualifications, and five-year refresher.
Which ships carry a SOPEP, which four items the plan must hold at least, which language it is written in, and when it may be combined into an SMPEP, taken from the four paragraphs of regulation 37.
MSC.428(98) affirms that an approved safety management system should take cyber risk management into account and sets the deadline at the first DOC annual verification after 1 January 2021. The three things the resolution asks for and where the auditor looks.
Passenger ship training stacks up as familiarization, crowd management, crisis management and passenger, cargo and hull safety. Who each layer calls, which layers carry five-year refresher, and how far the documentary evidence reaches.
15 ppm alone does not permit a discharge. En route, filtering equipment, no dilution and the tanker restrictions have to overlap, special areas add one equipment requirement, and the Antarctic closes it. Regulation 15 and regulation 4 set out.
MSC.273(85) fixed the internal audit interval at twelve months and allowed three more only in exceptional circumstances. How the wording on risk assessment, the master's periodic review, prevention of recurrence and critical equipment changed, read as the amended text.
The company proposes the minimum safe manning and the Administration approves it. The twelve factors, the six company duties, the Administration's two evaluation criteria and withdrawal grounds, and the contents of the document under IMO Resolution A.1047(27).
Which ships carry Oil Record Book Part I, which machinery space operations are entered and signed by whom, and for how many years after the last entry the book stays on board, taken from regulation 17 and appendix III.
ISM Code chapter 13 opens the DOC annual verification three months either side of the anniversary date and the SMC intermediate verification between the second and third anniversary dates. How the renewal completion date sets the new validity and what withdraws a certificate.
Seafarers' annual leave with pay is calculated at a minimum of 2.5 calendar days per month of employment. Justified absences are not leave, and agreements to forgo it are prohibited. What the Standard and the Guideline each fix.
FuelEU splits ports in two and gives each half a different start date for the connection obligation, then closes the exceptions at eight grounds. What has to be on record before a ship can rely on one.
The duty to surrender allowances attaches not to the owner but to the shipping company the Directive names. The three-limb rule that assigns an administering authority to that company, and when the assignment changes.
There is no single date on which a ship becomes a new ship. How the contract date, the keel date and the delivery date each serve as the test, and how a major conversion reopens a settled answer.
Emissions for safety and saving life, exemptions for trials and research, and recognition of equivalent fittings and fuels. Who decides at each of the three doors opened by regulations 3 and 4.
Which survey attaches to which date on the certificate, and how the start of the new validity period shifts depending on when the renewal survey is completed relative to expiry.
The provision lists six kinds of substance that may not be burned and attaches incinerator approval and temperature conditions to what may be. Including the places where incineration is barred outright.
The ban on new installations splits into two dates by substance, and the record book attaches only to ships carrying rechargeable systems. What Regulation 12 prohibits and what it makes the ship write down.
The Tier an engine has to meet is fixed by the date the ship was constructed, and a major conversion gives that engine a fresh date. How Regulation 13 finds the Tier, and how Regulation 2 defines the construction date.
The delivery note stays three years from the day the fuel came on board, and the sample stays until the fuel is substantially consumed with a floor of 12 months. Three records, three clocks, three custodians.
A general limit and an emission control area limit apply to different things. What has to be written down when a ship crosses between them, and at which moment.
A certificate issued outside the EU opens a berth on a Member State flagged ship only after an EU recognition decision. The order in which that door opens, and the steps by which it closes.
The grade of a casualty switches the State safety investigation duty on and off. Where the duty becomes mandatory, where it stays with the investigating authority, and how notification is attached separately.
EU Regulation 336/2006 extends the ISM Code to domestic voyages and regular shipping services, and sets an exclusion list beside it. The order in which a ship is tested against the two lists.
The EU recognises a classification society and then assesses it at least once every two years. The order in which a remedial demand, fines and withdrawal open once the minimum criteria are not met.
Appendix A5-I lists in sixteen lines what has to be inspected and approved before a Maritime Labour Certificate is issued. Which records that list calls for, and how far an inspector may reach.
A seafarer may take a complaint straight to an officer in the port of call. Where the on-board procedure is weighed, what lets that step be skipped, and how the complaint climbs to the flag State and the ILO.
A ship may leave even where the deficiency cannot be fixed in that port. Conditions attach to the voyage, and those conditions and the ship's arrival travel between the next authority and the port of departure.
The directive grants a right of appeal against detention and refusal of access, and in the same paragraph denies it suspensive effect. What an upheld appeal actually restores, and the qualification and independence conditions placed on inspectors.
EU port State control keeps the door that postpones an inspection and the door that holds a ship in port inside one directive. The conditions a postponement has to meet, the four categories eligible for an expanded inspection, and the duty to remain until it is finished.
The basic certificate is called by the assigned cargo duty, while the advanced one names four ranks and anyone with immediate cargo responsibility. Where approved seagoing service replaces a course, and where it does not.
Security awareness, designated security duties and the ship security officer sit on different requirements. How to tell which layer catches which seafarer, and how the certificate comes out.
Survival craft and advanced fire fighting carry a paragraph requiring proof of maintained competence every five years, and the medical sections carry none. Where the renewal proof departs from the initial one.
What has to be fixed before the watch bill is drawn up, and what may still be settled on the day. The composition factors, the handover deferrals and the sole lookout conditions in STCW Code A-VIII/2.
Before a flag State can recognize a foreign certificate it has to evaluate the issuing Party, and the endorsement only follows a check on authenticity. Including the three-month window that opens service while the endorsement is awaited.
Revalidation asks for medical fitness and for continued professional competence separately, and the seagoing service requirement splits into a five-year window and a six-month window. What opens when neither window is filled.
A State that is not the flag State still answers for its own seafarers and for the services on its territory. How that responsibility attaches to people and services rather than to ships.
Personal safety training is a precondition for working on a ship at all, while safety familiarization is filled in on board before duties are assigned. Why the two thresholds hang on different moments.
A flag State may implement the Convention through measures other than Part A. The two conditions Article VI attaches to that substitution, and where the adopted substitution is recorded.
The seafarer definition lists no jobs and turns only on working on board. Which ships Article II pushes outside the Convention, and who determines a disputed category.
A ship with five or more seafarers has to have a safety committee. What the provision assigns to the committee, to safety representatives, and to the person the master designates.
Two months of unpaid wages is one route into abandonment, and the security pays wages up to a ceiling of four months. Where the test for abandonment and the list of what gets paid part company.
Basic safety training covers four subjects, but continued competence has to be evidenced every five years for two of them. Where that line falls, and which items onboard training and experience can stand in for.
FuelEU builds its limit by cutting a reference value by a percentage that steps up over the years. What restrictions attach to banking, borrowing and pooling when a ship ends the period in deficit.
The EU ETS splits 50% from 100% by where each voyage begins and ends. The phase-in surrender percentages, and why the surrender obligation stays with the shipping company even when a contract moves the cost.
EU MRV closes a year with a 31 March report and a 30 June carriage requirement. Why the 18-month validity of the document of compliance ends on the very day the next one has to be on board.
The required EEXI comes from applying a reduction factor, set by ship type and size, to the EEDI reference line value. The whole of Table 3, the interpolation rule between bands, and the conditions for using an EEDI value as the attained EEXI.
CII counts a whole calendar year and is reported within three months of its end. Why regulation 28 looks at the year whole where regulation 27 has it split by period.
Familiarization does not start on board; it starts with written instructions the company gives the master. The two things those instructions must contain, and the five duties placed on the company.
SEEMP Part I, II and III applicability, corrective-action triggers, submission dates based on actual CII reporting, and a practical action review sheet.
Repeated detention in the EU turns into refusal of access, and the wait before it lifts grows at each step. The detention thresholds, the detention counts that differ by flag performance list, and the route to a permanent refusal.
A seafarer's social security cannot be worked out from the flag alone. Why the floor at ratification is three of nine branches, and why the rest is the responsibility of the State of ordinary residence.
EU port State control sets inspection intervals and scope from the ship risk profile. How far apart the eligibility point and the ceiling sit for each profile, and the grounds that leave no discretion.
A doctor is carried where 100 or more persons and international voyages of more than three days apply together. The substitute requirements on ships without a doctor, and radio medical advice that is free regardless of flag.
Complaints are to be resolved at the lowest level possible, yet in all cases the seafarer keeps the right to go straight to the master and to external authorities. The definition of victimization and the documents that have to be handed over.
The cook qualification steps down in three tiers depending on manning and circumstance. The five subjects an approved course has to cover, and the ceiling on the dispensation period.
An inspection in port ends at a review of the certificate and the declaration. The four grounds that carry it through to a detailed inspection, and the two conditions that hold the ship alongside.
Which accommodation rules apply turns on when the ship was built, and exemptions open below 3,000 gross tonnage. The two dividing lines, the floor area figures, and the master's inspection record.
Flag State inspection cannot fall more than three years apart, and an inspector can stop a ship from leaving port. The three powers, the limits attached to them, and the provision that hides who complained.
Meeting the minimum safe manning document does not close out the manning requirement. What MLC Regulation 2.7 stacks on top of that document, and the route by which food and catering requirements enter the manning decision.
A maritime labour certificate cannot exceed five years, and the intermediate inspection falls between the second and third anniversary dates. Where the new expiry date splits depending on when the renewal inspection was completed.
When the ship is gone, the shipowner pays an unemployment indemnity to every seafarer who was on board. What the mandatory provision actually requires, and where the amount and the duration live.
Recruitment and placement costs cannot fall on the seafarer, and the provision opens exactly three exceptions. Where visa costs land, and the verification duty that falls on the shipowner when the service sits outside the Convention.
Anyone under 16 is barred from working on board, and anyone under 18 is barred from night work and hazardous work. The floor the Convention puts under the definition of night, and who may open an exception.
The SEA takes two signed originals, one for the shipowner and one for the seafarer, with a copy and English versions on board. The 11 particulars every agreement must contain and what the record of employment must not say, from Standard A2.1.
No valid medical certificate, no work on board. The three validity periods of 2 years, 1 year under 18 and 6 years for colour vision, plus the 3-month cap for expiry at sea and urgent cases, straight from MLC Standard A1.2.
When a seafarer falls sick or is injured, the shipowner's liability for medical care and wages runs on a timeline down to a 16-week floor after repatriation. The scope, the three exclusions, and the financial security certificate.
What Standard A2.2 requires for payment intervals, monthly statements and exchange rates, and what Guideline B2.2 sets as the 1.25 overtime floor and deduction conditions, with worked examples.
The seven MLC Code amendments approved in June 2025, sorted into what is binding and what is guidance, with what you can prepare now and what must wait for the flag State.
MLC A2.5.1 requires the maximum period of service on board to be less than 12 months. Contract length and service on board are different concepts, and the leave provision shortens the limit further.
The 10 and 77 hours in MLC A2.3 and STCW A-VIII/1 are not calendar-day totals. Where the window is cut, what is checked besides the total, and how far exceptions go.
MEPC.385(81) replaced Appendix IX of MARPOL Annex VI in full. The new form asks for fuel consumption split by consumer, and that figure cannot be back-calculated from a total.
On a port State control report it is the ACTION code, not the deficiency code, that sets the ship's schedule. This is what each code means and where readings diverge.
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