A Third Officer's job, outside the watch — one ship, one month, in the order it actually happens.
Every third officer is trained to keep a watch. Almost none of them are trained for the rest of the day. The rest of the day is the port documents, the crew change, the muster list, the lifeboat inventory, the drill report, the requisition, the bonded store, and the inspector standing at the top of the gangway. It is most of the working week, it is what gets a ship detained, and it is the part your name ends up attached to.
The first lesson is free with a free account. Every lesson after it is part of Seaman Pro.
Tap a chapter to see its lessons. Chapter 00 is open — it holds the free lesson.
00
Before Anything Else: What This Is
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Welcome aboard, and what this is▶ Free
What you are actually paid for🔒
Navigation, and the other half🔒
Nothing here is fixed🔒
01
Where The Job Comes From
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The four places your job description lives🔒
When the manual is thin🔒
The filing system that carries the job🔒
02
Day One: The Handover
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Take control of the handover🔒
The questions nobody thinks to ask🔒
To see is to believe🔒
The notes you leave for the next man🔒
03
Crew Change
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The busiest week you will have🔒
The documents, and what you do with them🔒
What the flag wants🔒
The fifteen minutes that come first🔒
Everything posted on a bulkhead🔒
The drills a crew change triggers🔒
04
Port Formalities
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Why the paperwork decides how the call goes🔒
Building the system before you need it🔒
Pre-arrival, and the email that carries it🔒
The declarations, one at a time🔒
The morning they come aboard🔒
Sailing again🔒
Standing in front of an authority🔒
05
The Safety Equipment Is Yours
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Why this is yours🔒
The plan, the record and the manual🔒
Expiries come first🔒
Walking the ship🔒
Servicing, and the paper that proves it🔒
The fire plan🔒
06
Drills And Training
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Planning a month of them🔒
Running one worth running🔒
The report, and what it survives🔒
07
Requisitions
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Asking before you need it🔒
Knowing what to ask for🔒
Writing one that comes back right🔒
08
Month End And The Bonded Store
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The month-end pile🔒
The store, opened and closed🔒
Accounting, and the difference you explain🔒
09
When Somebody Comes To Inspect
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Who is coming aboard🔒
Preparing the week before🔒
The day itself🔒
What they find in your area🔒
The conversation after the finding🔒
10
Making The Time
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The skills that buy your evenings back🔒
What to expect of yourself🔒The three lanes at the end are the same voyage seen from your own deck — what changes when the cargo is grain, crude or boxes. Lessons marked in production are written and being filmed; they land in your account as each is finished.
You were trained to keep the watch.
Nobody trained you for the rest of the day — and the rest of the day is what gets a ship detained.
Port declarations, the muster list, the drill report, the requisition, the bonded-store account — filled in the way they are actually filled in, with the reason behind each line.
A handover in Singapore, a crew change the same week, a month end at sea, a port call and an inspector at the gangway — in the order they happen, not a syllabus sorted by subject.
Every lesson ends with something real to do on your own ship, photographed by you. Where a shortcut exists you are told what it costs and who has to approve it.
Someone who carried the third officer's file this contract — who knows which document the agent asks for first, what the flag inspector opens, which requisition comes back wrong and why, and what the surveyor is really looking at when he asks to see the lifeboat inventory.
Simplified Maritime has taught Filipino officers on Facebook for years, and the Navigators Club community is now more than 1,900 seafarers. The Other Half is that same voice, written down properly and filmed.
Most courses assume you are ashore on wifi. This one assumes you are three days off the coast with a satellite link you have been told not to waste.
Pull the chapters onto your phone alongside, then watch them mid-ocean with the data off. The whole app is offline-first.
The films are protected, so they play in the Seaman App on Android (or in Safari on an iPhone). The reading, handouts and your progress are also on the web at app.seamanapp.com — same account, same place in the course.
Yours for as long as you subscribe. Come back to the port-formalities chapter the night before your next arrival — that is when it means the most.
The Other Half is part of the Seaman Pro library, together with Port to Port. One subscription, both courses, and everything we add.
Monthly or annual. On the web it is $9.99 a month or $99.90 a year through PayPal; in the Android app it is billed by Google Play, priced for your country.
No free trial — the first lesson is free with a free account. Cancel any time.
Subscribed already? Open the course in the app.
Create a free Seaman App account and subscribe to Seaman Pro — Google Play in the Android app, PayPal on the web.
Install the Seaman App on Android and sign in — that is where the videos play. The reading and your progress are on the web too.
All 46 lessons are out. Download them in port, watch on passage, and do the thing each lesson ends with on your own vessel.
Yes. All 46 lessons across 11 chapters — about 2 h 58 min — are released and watchable the moment you subscribe.
One subscription for the English course library in the Seaman App: The Other Half, Port to Port, and every course we add. Monthly or annual. On the web it is $9.99 a month or $99.90 a year through PayPal; in the Android app it is billed by Google Play, priced for your country. There is no free trial; the first lesson is free with a free account.
Not on its own — it comes with Seaman Pro, which also includes Port to Port. If you only want a single course to own outright, Port to Port is sold that way for ₱3,250.
No. It's peer-to-peer mentorship from a working officer. It confers no certificate and no endorsement, nothing is marked, and it doesn't replace your company's safety-management system. Where a convention settles a question it is named; where it doesn't, you are told plainly that this is one officer's practice and the reasoning under it.
Yes. Download the videos in port on the Android app and watch them mid-ocean. The whole app is built offline-first for a ship's connection.
New and soon-to-be third officers, and cadets who want to know what the job is before they hold it. Second officers who never had this handover will recognise most of it.
Seaman App