A licensed mariner is a

sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. While the term ''sailor'' ...

who holds a license from a maritime authority to hold senior officer-level positions aboard ships, boats, and similar vessels. Qualification standards for licensed mariners are universally set by the

STCW Convention International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) sets minimum qualification standards for masters, officers and watch personnel on seagoing merchant ships and large yachts. STCW was adop ...

adopted and promulgated by the

International Maritime Organization The International Maritime Organization (IMO; ; ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for regulating maritime transport. The IMO was established following agreement at a ...

(IMO), while the licenses of individual sailors are issued by the delegated maritime authorities of the member states of the IMO; these may vary in the details of the implementation, including the government agency responsible for licensing and the local names of the grades and qualifications in each particular country. Mariners that do not have a license are referred to as unlicensed mariners or ratings.

Licensing by country

In the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

grants licenses to members of the

United States Merchant Marine The United States Merchant Marine is an organization composed of United States civilian sailor, mariners and U.S. civilian and federally owned merchant vessels. Both the civilian mariners and the merchant vessels are managed by a combination of ...

in five categories: deck officers, engineers, staff officers, radio officers, and pilots. The United States Coast Guard has replaced paper licenses with the Merchant Mariners Credential which is a combination of the former Merchant Marine Officers license and Merchant Mariners Document in a small book that looks similar to a passport. Several States within the United States issue a state mariners license for use upon non-federal inland waters. Most of these states honor USCG Merchant Marine licenses as an alternative to state licensing. State licensing programs closely follow the federal guidelines for issuance of these licenses, including the requirements concerning professional maritime training and experience. In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, the

Maritime and Coastguard Agency The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is an executive agency of the United Kingdom that is responsible for implementing British and international maritime law and safety policy. It works to prevent the loss of lives at sea and to prevent mar ...

issue licenses, known as Certificates of Competency, in a similar fashion under the amended STCW convention.

Types

Deck officers

There are a wide variety of licenses for deck officers, with restrictions of geography and tonnage. Licenses without such restrictions are called ''unlimited'' as in ''Third Mate'' or ''Officer of the Watch, Unlimited''. The grades of unlimited licenses are: * Master's License for masters and lower grades. * Chief Mate's License for

chief mate A chief mate (C/M) or chief officer, usually also synonymous with the first mate or first officer, is a licensed mariner and head of the deck department of a merchant ship. The chief mate is customarily a watchstander and is in charge of the ship ...

s and lower grades. * Second Mate's License qualifies the holder as

second mate A second mate (2nd mate) or second officer (2/O) is a licensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship holding a Second Mates Certificate of Competence, by an authorised governing state of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). ...

third mate A third mate (3/M) or third officer is a licensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship. The third mate is a watchstander and customarily the ship's safety officer and fourth-in-command (fifth on some ocean liners). The position i ...

. * Third Mate's License qualifies the holder as

. Mariner licenses range from large to small vessels. Smaller charter boat operators may have a charter boat license or a certificate under the Large Yacht Code.

Engineers

Licenses are issued in the grades of: *

Chief Engineer A chief engineer, commonly referred to as "Chief" or "ChEng", is the most senior licensed mariner (engine officer) of an engine department on a ship, typically a merchant ship, and holds overall leadership and the responsibility of that departmen ...

First Assistant Engineer A second engineer or first assistant engineer is a licensed mariner, licensed member of the engineering department on a merchant vessel. This title is used for the person on a ship responsible for supervising the daily Maintenance, repair and ope ...

Second Assistant Engineer A third engineer or second assistant engineer is a rank of engine officer who is part of the engine department on a ship. The third engineer is usually in charge of boilers, auxiliary engines, condensate and feed systems, record keeping of chemi ...

* Third Assistant Engineer *

(limited) * Assistant Engineer (limited) * Designated duty engineer *

(uninspected fishing industry vessels) * Assistant Engineer (uninspected fishing industry vessels)

Staff officers

Staff officers are issued a

Certificate of Registry Certificate may refer to: * Birth certificate * Marriage certificate * Death certificate * Gift certificate * Certificate of authenticity, a document or seal certifying the authenticity of something * Certificate of deposit, or CD, a financial p ...

in the following grades: * Chief

purser A purser is the person on a ship principally responsible for the handling of money on board. On modern merchant ships, the purser is the officer responsible for all administration (including the ship's cargo and passenger manifests) and supply. ...

* Purser * Senior assistant purser * Junior assistant purser *

Medical doctor A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis ...

* Professional

nurse Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...

* Marine

physician assistant A physician assistant or physician associate (PA) is a type of non-physician practitioner. While these job titles are used internationally, there is significant variation in training and scope of practice from country to country, and sometimes be ...

* Hospital corpsman

Radio officers

* Radio officer

Pilots

Pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

licenses vary with tonnage and geography. Types of pilot's licenses are: * General routes (routes not restricted to rivers, canals and small lakes) * River routes * Canal and small lakes routes

References

*https://web.archive.org/web/20160201080824/http://cfr.regstoday.com/46cfr11.aspx#46_CFR_11p807