Who can sign my sea service letter on company letterhead?
There are four main positions at your organization who can sign your sea service letter on company letterhead. It can be the ship’s master, owner, vessel manager or office staff.
You cannot sign for yourself on a sea service letter on company letterhead like you would on a CG-719S small vessel sea service form.
What needs to be on the sea service letter?
You need to make sure it includes all of the information required by 46 CFR 10.232 for sea service letter on company letterhead including all of the the following information:
Your Name
Your Last Four of your Social or full MMC Reference Number
Vessel Name
Official Number
Vessel Type
Motor
Sail
Tank Ship or Barge - There are four main types of Tankers
Tank Ship (liquified gasses)
Tank Ship (dangerous liquids)
Tank Barge (liquified gasses)
Tank Barge (dangerous liquids)
Towing
High Speed Craft
Offshore Installation - There are three types of Offshore Installations
Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit -There are two types of MODUs
Bottom Bearing Unit
Surface Unit - There are three types of MODU Surface Units
Self Propelled
Propulsion Assisted
Non-Self-Propelled
Floating Offshore Installation - There are two types of Floating Offshore Installations
Active Ballast
Passive Ballast
Fixed Platform
Freight
Liftboat
Propulsion Type - There are three types of of Propulsion the USCG recognizes
Motor
Steam
Gas Turbine
Tonnage -
GRT (Always ask for GRT. It makes your life the easiest with the USCG)
GT
NRT
Engine Horsepower
The Beginning Date of Service
The End Date of Service
Number of Underway Days
Number of Days
8hr or 12 hr days
There are a few very special vessels which are listed in listed in 46 U.S.C. 8104 and 46 CFR 15.705, or authorized by their COI, who are authorized to operate a two-watch system, a 12-hour working day may be creditable as 1.5 “days” of service only on those vessels. If the vessel is only authorized by their COI we strongly recommend you provide the COI for that vessel every time you interact with the USCG for licensing.
We hope this made your life a little easier and if you have other questions the MM-SEAS team is always here to help!
We do prefer to answer questions live with screen sharing to make both of our lives easier.
We hold free live virtual master classes Monday and Wednesday from 5:00 - 5:30 pm PT inside of mmseas.com under License Guidance and then Daily Master Classes.
Pro MM-SEAS members get access to our daily live master classes and office hours Monday thru Friday from 5:00 - 5:30 pm PT. You also get access to unlimited live 1 on 1 calls with one of our USCG Licensing Specialists. Pro MM-SEAS members can access these features inside of mmseas.com under License Guidance.