Ship Captain CV Examples & Writing Guide

This is a fictional CV for a master running passenger and crew vessels on the south coast of England and in the North Sea. Copy the shape, then swap in your own certificate, tonnage, areas and sea time. If you run Thames tugs, trip boats or coded charter vessels, the structure works the same; only the certificates and the numbers change.

Recruiting a master is a compliance decision before it is a hiring decision. The vessel's Safe Manning Document and certificates say what certificate of competency the person in command must hold, so the reader is matching your paperwork against those documents. Four things decide whether you get a call.

• Certificate, tonnage and area. "Master <500 GT Near Coastal" and "Master Unlimited" are different jobs, and a Boatmaster Licence covers inland waters only. Write the certificate out the way it appears on your CoC, including the tonnage limit and the area (near coastal, unlimited, or the inland waters on a Boatmaster Licence).
• Expiry dates. Your CoC, ENG1, STCW refreshers, GMDSS certificate and medical training all expire at different times. A crewing manager wants to know today whether you can sail next month, so put the year next to each one.
• Sea time that matches the certificate. If you claim time towards an upgrade, give it in days, not adjectives. "Approximately 640 documented sea days on vessels over 100 GT" is checkable; "extensive sea time" is not.
• Vessel types and waters. Running a trip boat on a lake is not the same as running a fast support vessel in the North Sea in December. Name the hull types, lengths, power or GT, and the specific waters or routes.

“I get CVs that spend a paragraph on leadership and never say the tonnage. If I cannot tell in ten seconds whether your licence covers my boat, I cannot put you in front of the port captain. Endorsement, route, tonnage, expiration. Then tell me about the job.”

Use a personal statement if you already hold a master's certificate. Use a career objective only if you are moving up from mate, leaving the Armed Forces, or switching sectors, because an objective explains a change that your job titles do not. Either way, the first eight words should be your certificate.

Sea time is the currency of this trade, and most captain CVs waste it. Do not leave it buried inside a bullet. Give each job a short vessel line under the employer name, then let the bullets do the work. A reader can then price your experience in about three seconds.

• Vessel line format: type, length or GT, propulsion, and area. Example: "190 GT passenger ferry, 28 m, twin screw, Solent near coastal."
• Sea days per job, rounded honestly: "about 640 documented sea days over 28-and-28 rotations". Keep your discharge book and sea service testimonials so you can back the figure up.
• Cargo or passenger volume: passengers per season, barges per tow, tonnes of deck cargo, or trips per year.
• Weather and traffic reality: night arrivals, ice, fog transits, restricted channels, bridge and lock transits. These say more about your ship handling than any adjective.

The duties in a job advert ("responsible for the safe navigation of the vessel") describe every captain who ever lived. Your bullets have to describe you. Each rewrite below keeps the same duty and adds the vessel, the water and the number.

One number per job is the minimum. Passenger counts, sea days, crossings, tow size, power, survey results and fuel savings are all fair game. If you genuinely have no number, use a frequency: "28 landings a day" or "monthly drills for five years".

Keep the skills block short and technical. A hiring manager reads it as a checklist against the boat, so bury nothing important in it and repeat nothing you already proved in a bullet.

Navigation and ship handling:

• Passage planning and voyage plan approval
• ECDIS, electronic charting and paper chart plotting
• Radar and ARPA plotting, collision avoidance under the COLREGs
• Twin screw and single screw handling, bow thruster work, current and wind allowance
• Anchoring, mooring, and ship-handling or towing on the wire and alongside

Regulation, safety and paperwork:

• MCA passenger certificate and annual survey preparation
• ISM Safety Management System procedures, drills and near-miss reporting
• Stability, trim and load line compliance from the approved stability booklet
• STCW hours of rest tracking and watch scheduling
• Accident reporting to the MAIB and alcohol and drug rules for seafarers

The human side of the job, which sinks more careers than bad ship handling does:

• Bridge resource management: giving the mate room to speak up and challenge
• Crew discipline and conflict handling on long rotations in a small space
• Passenger communication during delays, rough weather and medical events
• Handover notes and watch handover that the relief master can actually use

List only what you actually hold, and use the exact wording on your certificate. Crewing managers verify these, and a wrong tonnage or area reads as either carelessness or a bluff. Give each one a year so the reader knows what is current.

• MCA Certificate of Competency (CoC) with your capacity, tonnage and area, such as Master <500 GT Near Coastal, Master <3000 GT or Master Unlimited. This is the licence itself and it belongs first. On inland waters a Boatmaster Licence takes its place.
• STCW training: Basic Training with its refreshers, Advanced Fire Fighting, Proficiency in Survival Craft and Rescue Boats, and medical training at the right level (Ship Captain's Medical for masters), as applicable.
• Navigation equipment training: ECDIS generic and type-specific courses and radar/ARPA simulator training at the level of your certificate.
• Ship Security Officer (SSO) certificate if you hold the ISPS security role on board.
• ENG1 seafarer medical certificate, with its expiry year.
• Small commercial vessel or workboat endorsements, such as an RYA qualification with a commercial endorsement, if you skipper coded vessels.
• GMDSS General Operator's Certificate (GOC) or Restricted Operator's Certificate (ROC), with its revalidation year.

Two career moves dominate the searches for this job: mates trying to land a first command, and captains looking for a shore job that pays without the rotation. The CV changes for each.

1. 1If you are chasing a first command, lead with relief master time. Sixty voyages as acting master beats three years of unstated watchkeeping.
2. 2Put your sea day count and your upgrade status in the personal statement so the reader does not have to guess whether you are close.
3. 3Name every training record book, course and exam you have completed, and give the date of your MCA oral exam if it is booked.
4. 4For a shore job (marine superintendent, harbour master, port operations, marine surveyor, nautical college lecturer), rewrite your bullets around budget, audits, scheduling and supplier work rather than around the wheelhouse.

• Length: one or two pages up to about eight years, two pages once you have several vessel types and a command history worth listing. Put a detailed sea service table on a separate sheet rather than going past two.
• Order: name and certificate line, personal statement, certificates and endorsements, experience, education and training, skills. Certificates sit high because they are the first thing checked.
• File: send a PDF unless the advert asks for Word. Name it "Voss_Daniel_Master500GT.pdf" so it survives a crowded inbox.
• No photo, no date of birth, no marital status on a UK CV. International crewing agencies often ask for nationality and date of birth on their own forms; give them there, not on the CV.
• In the US this document is called a resume and operators expect the US Coast Guard credential and port security card up front. If you apply to US operators, keep a separate version.

Many operators screen applications through an applicant tracking system that matches plain keywords. Mirror the advert's exact terms inside your bullets, not in a keyword list at the bottom.

• Certificate wording exactly as advertised: "Master <500 GT Near Coastal", "Master Unlimited", "Chief Mate <3000 GT", "Boatmaster Licence".
• Vessel words: passenger vessel, crew transfer vessel, support vessel, tug, ferry, workboat, research vessel, dredger.
• Regulatory words: MCA, ISM, ISPS, MLC, STCW, COLREGs, passenger certificate, Safe Manning Document.
• Operational words: sea days, watchkeeping, bridge resource management, ECDIS, radar/ARPA, drills, near-miss reporting.