Seaman book at sea works the same way the passport work for air travel, seaman book is used to register the time spent at service onboard ship by stamping the date signed on and signed off a ship.

Always a new seaman book is issued by the flags to new applicants either applying for certificate of competency or endorsements or rating certificate of proficiency even most of the flags issue only seaman book for for the ratings.

Validly of seamen book is usually 5 years in synchronization with the certificate of competency.

Requirements for issuing a seaman book depends on the type of the certification you are getting

• When applying for certificate of competency either as deck or engine office, the seaman book is issued as part of the COC package
• When applying for ratings it is usually the main document issued
• When applying for endorsement it issued issued as past of the endorsement to package by the flag, some flag issue the seaman book as separate documents for the endorsement.