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USCG-MASTER100-L4.1

The master's responsibility for passengers

Your passengers do not know where the life jackets are. They do not know which way is forward. They will not hear you over the engine, and in an emergency roughly half of them will do nothing at all. Every safety system on the vessel has to work around those facts.

Entry & progression

Exam module: Q161 — Deck Safety. 50 questions, 70% pass mark. This is the module about the people, not the boat.

The safety orientation

46 CFR 26.03-1 requires an announcement or a placard before getting underway. On a vessel carrying members of the public who have never been on a boat, treat it as the single most valuable minute of the trip.

  1. Where the life jackets are, and how to put one on. Show one. Do not point at a locker.
  2. What the alarm sounds like and what to do when they hear it.
  3. Where to muster, and where not to go.
  4. How to move about — one hand for the boat, stay seated when underway, no sitting on the gunwale.
  5. Who is in charge — you — and that instructions must be followed immediately, without discussion.

TIP — Give the brief like you mean it A mumbled recitation while people are still finding seats achieves nothing and is a defence that will not survive a deposition. Stop the boat. Get their attention. Take sixty seconds. On the day it matters, the passengers who listened are the ones who will not be in your way — and possibly the ones still alive.

Persons on board

On an inspected vessel the Certificate of Inspection sets the maximum number of persons. That number is not a target and it is not negotiable. It was calculated from the vessel's stability and her lifesaving capacity, and exceeding it makes both of those calculations false.

Count them. Count them again before you leave the dock and count them before you leave anywhere you stopped. The number of small passenger vessels that have returned to the berth one person short is not zero, and the moment to discover it is not tomorrow.

Alcohol aboard

Passengers drinking is a commercial reality on many charter boats. It is also a safety problem you own: intoxicated people fall over, fall in, and do not follow instructions. You have the authority to refuse boarding and to stop service, and on the day something goes wrong you will be asked why you did not use it.

And your own limit is 0.04 percent (33 CFR 95.020) — half the recreational figure. You are working.

The duty that has no regulation number

Everything in this lesson has a citation except the important part. You accepted money to take people to sea. They cannot assess the risk, they cannot read the weather, and they cannot judge whether your boat is sound. They are relying entirely on your judgement, and most of them do not even know they are doing it.

That is what a Master's licence actually is.

Practice questions

5 questions
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recall · core

The safety orientation required by 46 CFR 26.03-1 must be given: (a) Only if passengers request it (b) Before getting underway, as an announcement or by placard (c) Once the vessel is at sea (d) Only on inspected vessels

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recall · core

The maximum number of persons a small passenger vessel may carry is set by: (a) The master's judgement (b) The Certificate of Inspection (c) The vessel's length (d) The number of life jackets aboard

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recall · core

The blood alcohol limit applying to the master of a small passenger vessel is: (a) 0.08 percent (b) 0.04 percent (c) 0.10 percent (d) There is no limit

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recall · core

In an emergency, the most likely passenger response is: (a) Immediate correct action (b) That roughly half will do nothing at all (c) Orderly evacuation (d) To assist the crew

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recall · core

A passenger who is visibly intoxicated: (a) Must be carried, as they have paid (b) May be refused boarding — the master has and should use that authority (c) Is the concern of the owner, not the master (d) May be carried if seated

AI-drafted catalogue content pending SME review. USCG requirements change; verify every figure against the National Maritime Center and the current CFR before relying on it for an application.

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