How to fill out your Captain’s License Sea Service Form

Small vessel sea service forms are used to document the time you spent on the water in order to qualify for your USCG captain’s license. Remember to use one small vessel sea service form per vessel. Fill in your last name, first name, middle initial, and social security number. If you are applying for a renewal, upgrade, or increase you will have a reference number to fill in also. Next fill in the vessel’s name and state registration numbers. If your vessel is documented you will use the official number of the vessel. The form then asks for the vessel’s gross tons, length, width, and depth. The easiest thing to do here is fill in the vessel gross tons box as “unknown,” and the length box with the length of your vessel, leaving the width and depth boxes blank. If you would like to calculate your vessel’s approximate gross tons follow along with the gross tonnage calculation video. Next, provide the propulsion type of your vessel and the position you were in on that vessel. Keep in mind that if this is an Original License Application, you served as operator or deckhand. Next describe the waters you were on during your time on this vessel. The waters should be one of the following: Great Lakes, Inland, Western Rivers, or Near Coastal.

Section II lets you lay out the days you were on the water. There are 12 blocks labeled with the month. Under the months are two columns of five spaces. In the left column you record the years you were on the vessel and in the right column you record the days in that year for that month. If you owned a vessel for more than five years you may need to attach another page or two so you are able to record all the years you were on the vessel. At the bottom of Section II, under the month blocks are six boxes to fill in. The top left box records the total number of days spent on that vessel, to get the answer you must add up every day you recorded on the form. The middle box on the left is the average hours underway per day. Be aware that the minimum number to put in this box is four. The bottom box on the left is average distance offshore, use your best guess of the average distance offshore and record it here. The three boxes on the right break your time up into the area where you got the sea time. If all of your time was on the Great Lakes you will put the same number as the total time. If your days were spent less than three miles offshore it was inland time. If your days were spent more than three miles offshore it was near coastal time. Your total days on the vessel may be broken up between inland and near coastal time.

Sign and date the top of section III in the boxes provided labeled signature of applicant and date. If you own the vessel you will also sign and date the bottom portion of section III as the person attesting to your time on the vessel. Next fill in your last name, first name, middle initial, email address, street address, city, state, zip code, and phone number. As the owner you must provide proof of ownership of the vessel by attaching to this form one of the following; title, registration, bill of sale, or article of incorporation. If you are not the owner of the vessel the owner, operator, or master of the vessel must sign and date for bottom section of the form in the box labeled signature and title of person attesting to your experience, and provide their contact information.

Each Captain’s License has its own requirements. See the list below.