SOLAS Crew Familiarisation, Onboard Training & STCW Guide

Crew familiarisation is not merely a recommended best practice; it is a mandatory, multi-tiered international legal obligation embedded across four interlocking conventions and codes:

• SOLAS Regulation III/19.2: Establishes mandatory emergency training and drills for passenger and cargo ships, defining the baseline timelines for pre-sailing familiarisation and 2-week ship-specific survival training.
• SOLAS Regulation II-2/15: Mandates fire safety training and drills, requiring newly joined crew to receive instructions on the ship's fire-extinguishing systems, fire doors, remote stops, and personal protective equipment.
• ISM Code Section 6.3: Obligates the company to establish procedures to ensure that new personnel and personnel transferred to new assignments are given proper familiarisation with their duties, ensuring essential instructions are identified, documented, and given prior to sailing.
• STCW Regulation I/14 & Code Section A-VI/1: Mandates that companies ensure masters, officers, and ratings are allocated shipboard duties with adequate familiarisation in maritime safety, security, and environmental protection.

Failure to maintain signed, verifiable familiarisation records is one of the most frequent triggers for ISM Code deficiency 15150 (Safety Management System), which elevates minor equipment discrepancies into detainable ship-wide ISM non-conformities during Port State Control inspections.

The statutory familiarisation process follows a structured timeline spanning from the hour of embarkation through ongoing 2-month recurring cycles:

Pre-sailing familiarisation under STCW Code Section A-VI/1 § 1 must never be treated as a passive signing exercise. The newly joined seafarer must physically walk the escape routes from their cabin and primary workstation to their designated muster station, physically inspect the lifejacket and immersion suit stowed in their cabin, and demonstrate understanding of the emergency alarm signals.

For licensed officers, familiarisation extends beyond personal survival to encompass operational control of navigation and propulsion machinery:

• ECDIS Type-Specific Familiarisation: Under STCW I/14 and ISM Code § 6.3, navigating officers must be competent in the specific manufacturer and model installed. Officers must demonstrate competence in setting safety depths and safety contours, configuring isolated danger symbols, checking CATZOC quality indicators, setting look-ahead vectors, and switching between primary and secondary ECDIS units or paper chart backups.
• Bridge Navigation Watch Alarm System (BNWAS): Setting dormancy intervals (3 to 12 minutes), visual and audible alarm sequences across bridge, Master's cabin, and officer cabins, and security keylock access.
• Steering Gear Operating Modes: Procedures for changing between manual follow-up, non-follow-up (NFU) tiller, autopilot, and emergency helm control in the steering compartment (SOLAS V/26).
• Engine Room UMS Automation: Unattended Machinery Space (UMS) safety systems, dead man's alarm, bilge level alarms, fuel quick-closing valves, boiler flame-failure trips, and main engine emergency stop controls.
• Emergency Power Changeover: Manual paralleling, emergency switchboard bus-tie breaker operation, and battery bank maintenance.

Under SOLAS Regulation III/19.4.1 and SOLAS Regulation II-2/15.2.3, initial familiarisation must be followed by structured on-board training designed to keep every crew member proficient:

• Complete 2-Month LSA Cycle: On-board training in the use of the ship's life-saving appliances (including survival craft equipment) and fire-extinguishing appliances must cover every appliance on board within each two-month period.
• SOLAS III/35 Training Manual: A ship-specific training manual written in easily understood terms and illustrated with drawings must be placed in each crew messroom and recreation room or in each crew cabin. It must explain donning of LSA, survival craft boarding and launching, release from launching appliances, lighting, search and rescue devices (SARTs, EPIRBs), use of sea anchors, and recovery of survival craft.
• SOLAS II-2/15 Fire Training Manual: Explains general fire safety practices, precautions regarding smoking and electrical hazards, fire alarm activation, operation of fixed gas and water systems, fire doors, and operation of breathing apparatus.
• MES Chute and Slide Training: For ships equipped with Marine Evacuation Systems, every crew member assigned to MES duties must receive deployment training at intervals not exceeding two (2) years, reinforced by practical instruction during abandon ship drills.

Under IMO Resolution A.1206(34) (Procedures for Port State Control, 2025), PSC officers have explicit authority to conduct operational checks whenever there are clear grounds for believing that the crew does not know how to operate essential shipboard equipment.

If a crew member hesitates, fails to start emergency machinery, or exhibits lack of basic operating knowledge during a PSC inspection, the PSCO will expand the inspection. Hesitation during an emergency steering drill or emergency fire pump test frequently results in anAction Code 30 (Detention) with a mandatory requirement for external RO audit or crew re-training before the ship is permitted to sail.