Which STCW certificates does a chief officer need on file?

In Docka's default rule set: passport, seaman's book, medical fitness certificate, STCW Basic Safety Training and the flag-state endorsement of the CoC. On a chemical tanker or gas carrier the berth adds tanker familiarisation and Advanced Fire Fighting. The CoC itself, the GMDSS certificate and the survival craft and medical first aid proficiencies sit outside the default floor and should be in the file too.

Do cadets and ratings need a flag state endorsement?

Not in Docka's default rule set. The endorsement is the flag's recognition of a certificate of competency, and cadets do not hold one. Ratings forming part of a watch hold certificates of proficiency under STCW chapter II or III; an agency that wants those tracked adds them to its own required set.

What does 3/5 mean on the Docka board?

The seafarer has documents classified into 3 of the 5 base slots (Basic Safety Training, Medical, Endorsement, Seaman book, Passport) and is missing 2. The count is about presence of a classified document, not its verification status; a slot can be filled by an unverified upload, and the trust level is shown separately.

Resources / Guide

Which STCW documents a crewing agency should hold on file, by rank

By the Docka team · Reviewed 7 September 2026

Last updated: 7 September 2026

Every seafarer on your roster needs four documents on file: a passport, a seaman's book, a medical fitness certificate and STCW basic safety training. Officers need a fifth, the flag state endorsement of their certificate of competency. The vessel type adds more.

That is the floor Docka measures every seafarer against, and it is deliberately short. Below is the floor, the per-rank layer on top of it, the vessel-type add-ons, and a checklist you can print. The document names here are read from the product's own rule engine, so what you read on this page is what you will see on the board.

The universal floor (every rank)

Passport / travel document (typical validity 10 years)
Seaman's book (SID / discharge book) (typical validity 10 years)
Medical fitness certificate (ENG1 / equiv.) (typical validity 1 year)
STCW Basic Safety Training (typical validity 5 years)

Why these four. The passport and seaman's book are identity and travel; without them the seafarer cannot join or leave the ship. The medical is STCW regulation I/9. Basic safety training is STCW Code section A-VI/1 and applies to everyone employed on board who is assigned safety or pollution-prevention duties.

The validity years are the norms Docka's catalogue documents, not a rule of the Convention. A medical from your flag may run longer than a year, and an administration may date basic safety training differently. Read the certificate.

Ratings and cadets stop here. Docka's default rule set requires nothing further of them.

What officers add: the flag state endorsement

Master / Captain, Chief Officer / Chief Mate, Deck Officer (OOW / 2nd / 3rd Mate), Chief Engineer, Engineer Officer / ETO all add one slot: Flag-state endorsement of CoC.

The endorsement is the recognising flag's acceptance of the CoC under STCW regulation I/10, and it cannot outlive the CoC. So the file for an officer holds the CoC and the endorsement, both verified, with the endorsement checked against the flag that issued it. Our guide to STCW certificate types walks through the difference.

A note on what "on file" has to mean. Paris MoU instructions to inspectors say the seafarer must have the original certificates and original endorsements on board, and those may be electronic. A scan in your office is for your check. The original travels with the seafarer.

What the ship adds: vessel-type packs

Docka's default rule set adds documents by vessel type on top of the rank floor:

Oil tanker: Tanker familiarisation / cargo operations
Chemical tanker: Tanker familiarisation / cargo operations; Advanced Fire Fighting (STCW A-VI/3)
Gas carrier (LNG / LPG): Tanker familiarisation / cargo operations; Advanced Fire Fighting (STCW A-VI/3)
Passenger / Ro-Ro passenger: Advanced Fire Fighting (STCW A-VI/3)
General cargo, Container, Bulk carrier, Offshore / OSV: nothing beyond the rank floor

These are Docka's defaults, not the Convention's full list. Chapter V of the Convention sets the special training for tankers, passenger ships and other ship types, and the flag's minimum safe manning document decides what a given berth needs. An agency can edit its own required set in Docka, and the per-flag layer starts empty for the agency to fill.

What the default set leaves out, on purpose

The set above is a completeness floor, not a full crew list. It does not include the CoC itself as a separate slot, the GMDSS radio certificate, proficiency in survival craft and rescue boats (A-VI/2), medical first aid (A-VI/4), security duties (A-VI/6) or a ship security officer certificate. Inspectors do look for these where the rank or the muster list requires them.

We chose a short floor because a board that shows "3/5" is something a crewing manager acts on. A board with fourteen slots per person becomes wallpaper. Add the rest per agency where your fleet needs it.

Employment documents are a separate, opt-in set: Seafarer's Employment Agreement (SEA, MLC A2.1); Wage / salary account confirmation; Allotment authorisation; Contract addendum / employment rider. They are in Docka's catalogue and count against an assignment, not against the seafarer's floor.

Checklist by rank

Print this section or save it as a PDF. The rows are Docka's rank groups; a tick means the slot is required for that rank in the default rule set.

Rank	STCW Basic Safety Training	Medical fitness certificate (ENG1 / equiv.)	Flag-state endorsement of CoC	Seaman's book (SID / discharge book)	Passport / travel document
Master / Captain	Required	Required	Required	Required	Required
Chief Officer / Chief Mate	Required	Required	Required	Required	Required
Deck Officer (OOW / 2nd / 3rd Mate)	Required	Required	Required	Required	Required
Chief Engineer	Required	Required	Required	Required	Required
Engineer Officer / ETO	Required	Required	Required	Required	Required
Rating (AB / OS / support)	Required	Required	Not in default set	Required	Required
Cadet / Trainee	Required	Required	Not in default set	Required	Required

Tanker and passenger add-ons apply per berth, so they are listed under the vessel above, not the rank. Tick the row, then verify each document against the register on our registry coverage page. A ticked box is a present document, not a verified one.

Frequently asked questions

Which STCW certificates does a chief officer need on file?: In Docka's default rule set: passport, seaman's book, medical fitness certificate, STCW Basic Safety Training and the flag-state endorsement of the CoC. On a chemical tanker or gas carrier the berth adds tanker familiarisation and Advanced Fire Fighting. The CoC itself, the GMDSS certificate and the survival craft and medical first aid proficiencies sit outside the default floor and should be in the file too.
Do cadets and ratings need a flag state endorsement?: Not in Docka's default rule set. The endorsement is the flag's recognition of a certificate of competency, and cadets do not hold one. Ratings forming part of a watch hold certificates of proficiency under STCW chapter II or III; an agency that wants those tracked adds them to its own required set.
What does 3/5 mean on the Docka board?: The seafarer has documents classified into 3 of the 5 base slots (Basic Safety Training, Medical, Endorsement, Seaman book, Passport) and is missing 2. The count is about presence of a classified document, not its verification status; a slot can be filled by an unverified upload, and the trust level is shown separately.

Sources

IMO: the STCW Convention, for chapters V and VI, the ship-type and safety training the vessel-type packs rest on.
Paris MoU: PSCC instruction 57/2024/05, for the medical certificate, basic training, endorsement and originals-on-board statements.
Tokyo MoU: deficiency codes, for the crew-certificate codes quoted above.
The document-set names, validity years and the per-rank and per-vessel layers are read from Docka's own rule engine at render time, so the page shows what the board enforces.

Which registers Docka checks live, and what each one asks for, is on the registry coverage page. The method behind every check is in how seafarer certificate verification works.

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