Chapter I - General Provisions: How Certification Itself Works
Where the rules live
Chapter I contains no seamanship; it governs how certification itself works. The Convention articles and annex regulations sit above the STCW Code. Part A of the Code is mandatory ("shall"); Part B is guidance ("should"). A very common examination trap is presenting a Part B recommendation as a legal requirement.
Instruments you must recognise
- Certificate of competency (CoC) – issued to masters and officers after proving the standards in Chapters II, III, IV or VII.
- Certificate of proficiency (CoP) – issued to ratings and to seafarers who complete basic safety training or other Chapter V/VI courses.
- Documentary evidence – anything other than a CoC or CoP used to prove competence, such as a training record book.
- Endorsement attesting recognition of a certificate issued by another Administration.
Regulation I/2 deals with certificates and endorsements; I/4 with port State control (the PSCO checks validity and may detain for deficiencies); I/6 with training and assessment; I/8 with quality standards; I/9 with medical standards; I/11 with revalidation; and I/14 with the company's duty to ensure each seafarer is familiarised before assignment.
The dispensation trap
Under Article IX an Administration may grant a dispensation only in exceptional necessity, for a specified ship and capacity, for no more than six months, to a person adequately qualified to fill the post safely - and never to a master or chief engineer except in force majeure. Questions love to swap "six months" for "three months", or to present dispensation as automatic.
Rule of thumb: if a question asks who is responsible for familiarisation, rest records and fitness for duty, the answer is the company - the master executes those duties but does not own them.