Many people ask what are seafarers, yet the answer is simple but complicated for the common person who has no experience of marine knowledge and terminologies. A seafarer is a sailor or crew member on board any marine vessel that sails over water. Within these initials there are many different classifications, levels or ranks that seafarers can be found but the basic term seafarer refers to people who sail on-board water vessel.

A person is given this name or is referred to by this term when they begin serving on-board a marine vessel as a profession and the term does not qualify after the person leaves the profession unless he has achieved a high rank while on service. Any seamen with a long track record of working on-board a sea vessel is therefore called a seafarer.

Most people will begin their sea farer carrier at the

lowest rank and will require working his way slowly up the ranks as time passes. Experience, time spent and knowledge gained while on the position will determine whether the crewman will advance to a higher post. This promotion in ranks is not restricted just to one vessel but to most vessel where they ask new crew to provide experience and reference letters that will help determine what the crewman’s capability is and the most suitable position he should be posted at on the vessel.

Experience certificates and voyage logs as well as employer references are all documents that help determine if sailors should be promoted to the higher rank. Each promotion could take between one and two years but steadily with the acquisition of required educational qualification and job management skills on could be able to attain a high rank within 5 to 7 years on the job. Each branch of the vessel has ranks with the highest in command being the captain followed by first officers both on deck and below deck.

It would be difficult to find seafarers who could change their position from engineering to top deck but it would be possible if the person has studied that particular field and may require to be demoted to the suitable rank before being accepted in to the top deck crew. Specialization  on or below deck service is a decision the sea farer requires to take at the initial time when deciding to join the marine profession since the decision is reversible but could cost the seafarer a set back as he may get demoted to the suitable rank after changing the deck he had gained experience from.

Know that the question “ what are seafarers “ has been answered in the simplest way, a new question arises to the aspirants that may desire to join the navy if the future “WHAT POSITION DO YOU WANT TO BE POSTED AT?” since changing of posting may be more difficulty and cause set back than a crewman could have anticipated thus leading to prolonged time spent on the wrong deck and desire t change your post.

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