Deckhand Resume Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is for a deckhand with six years across a harbor ferry, offshore supply vessels and inland tugs, who has upgraded to an Able Seaman endorsement and is working toward a mate's license. The name and companies are made up. Copy the shape, then swap in your own vessels, tonnage and credential details.

Commercial deck work in the United States is document-gated. Get these right on the resume, with the endorsement wording exactly as it appears on the credential itself.

• Merchant Mariner Credential (MMC), issued by the US Coast Guard. This is the book that carries your ratings. Entry level deck work starts with an Ordinary Seaman endorsement.
• Able Seaman endorsements come in several forms (AB-Special, AB-Limited, AB-Unlimited, AB-Offshore Supply Vessels, AB-Sail), each requiring a different amount of documented sea service. Write which one you hold rather than just "AB".
• Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC). Required for access to secure port areas. List the expiry year.
• USCG medical certificate and enrollment in a random drug testing program. Say that yours is current.
• STCW Basic Training, needed for vessels on international or near-coastal voyages depending on route and tonnage. Also common: Proficiency in Survival Craft (often called Lifeboatman) and Rating Forming Part of a Navigational Watch (RFPNW).
• Add-ons that get you hired faster: Radar Observer, Vessel Personnel with Designated Security Duties, tankerman-PIC if you work barges, water survival, and a forklift or crane signaling ticket.

Sea service is counted in days aboard, and the requirement for each Able Seaman endorsement is set in the Coast Guard regulations. AB-Special, the most common upgrade for towing and offshore crew, requires 180 days of qualifying deck service. Check the current requirement with the National Maritime Center before you apply for an upgrade, and keep your sea service letters, because a crewing office will ask for them.

“First thing I look at is the endorsement and whether the TWIC and medical are live. Second thing is days at sea and whether they finished their hitches. A deckhand who has done four hundred days and never quit mid-hitch is worth three who look good on paper.”

A deckhand resume is judged on where you sailed, not just how long. Each job entry should carry the vessel type, size, route and rotation, because those tell a port captain what you can already do.

1. 1Name the vessel type: inland push boat, coastwise tug, offshore supply vessel, crew boat, dinner cruise vessel, harbor ferry, fishing vessel, research vessel, motor yacht, sailing yacht.
2. 2Give the size in the way that trade uses it. Tonnage and horsepower for tugs and commercial vessels, length overall for yachts, passenger capacity for ferries and excursion boats.
3. 3State the route or waters: inland rivers, Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, near coastal, ocean, Great Lakes, Alaska, Mediterranean and Caribbean seasons for yachts.
4. 4Write the rotation: 28 on / 14 off, 14 and 14, 6-on 6-off watches, day work only. This is how the crewing office schedules you.
5. 5Give days of sea service, since it decides your next endorsement. Roughly 1,100 days over five years reads well and is checkable against your sea service letters.
6. 6Say whether you completed every hitch or contract. Leaving mid-hitch is the maritime equivalent of being fired and it is the first thing a reference call uncovers.

Searching for the deckhand job description and copying it is the most common mistake here. The duties are the same on every boat; what differs is the volume, the conditions and your safety record.

Superyacht hiring runs through crew agencies in Fort Lauderdale, Antibes and Palma, and the document is called a CV rather than a resume. Several standard US conventions are reversed here, so do not send a commercial deckhand resume to a yacht agency.

• A photo is expected. A clean head-and-shoulders shot in a plain polo shirt, in good light, no sunglasses, no crop from a night out. This is standard in yachting and agencies will ask for it.
• One page only. Yacht CVs are one page, with the photo top left or top right and a boat list rather than long paragraphs.
• List vessels by length overall, motor or sail, private or charter, and the crew size. "52m motor yacht, private, 13 crew" is the format an agency reads.
• Certificates that matter: STCW Basic Training, an ENG1 or equivalent seafarer medical, Powerboat Level 2 for tender driving, a personal watercraft license, and Proficiency in Security Awareness.
• Skills that get a junior hired: chamois and washdown discipline, teak care, varnishing, detailing, tender driving, watersports toys, line handling and passerelle work.
• Say your nationality, visa status (a B1/B2 for the US season matters), and whether you have any visible tattoos, since some programs ask.
• Dayworking in a yachting hub for a season is a legitimate route in and belongs on the CV. List the boats you daywork on with dates.

Boats hire green deckhands constantly, especially towing companies, ferries, dinner cruise operators, fishing vessels and dayworking yachts. What they want to know is whether you will still be there on day nine.

1. 1Get the TWIC first. It takes weeks and no commercial operator can put you on a boat without it. Having it already is a real advantage over other applicants.
2. 2Apply for your MMC with an Ordinary Seaman endorsement, and put the application date on the resume if the credential has not arrived yet.
3. 3Get the medical certificate and be honest about the drug testing program. Every commercial operator runs random testing.
4. 4Pull forward any work that maps: construction and rigging, roofing, farm and ranch work, warehouse, oilfield, commercial fishing, military service, lifeguarding, welding. Give shift lengths, weights handled and safety records.
5. 5Mention time on the water in any form: recreational boating, sailing club, kayak guiding, jet ski rental, marina work, boatyard labor. It shows you will not be seasick and useless on day one.
6. 6Say plainly what you can accept: hitch length, being away from home for weeks, night watches, no phone signal, shared quarters. Crewing offices lose new hires to exactly these things.
7. 7Keep it to one page and lead with the documents you hold.

• One page for commercial deck work, one page for a yacht CV, two pages only if you have ten years and multiple endorsements.
• Credentials on the contact line, then a short summary, then vessels in reverse order. Skills and certificates at the bottom.
• Plain single-column layout, PDF, named with your last name and rating. Many towing and offshore companies now run applications through an applicant tracking system that mangles columns.
• Use the exact words from the posting: deckhand, tankerman, AB, OS, ordinary seaman, RFPNW, hitch, rotation, ship assist, fleeting, barge, OSV.
• Include a phone number that works in port and an email you check on rotation. Crewing offices call with a joining date and a short window.
• No photo on a US commercial resume. A photo is expected on a yacht CV. Those are the two different worlds and you should not mix them.
• List two references with phone numbers, ideally a captain or port captain. Maritime hiring runs on phone calls between people who know each other.