178 LAWS GOVERNING MARINE INSPECTION 



Certification of Able Seamen Convention, 1946 



The General Conference of the International Labor Organization, 



Having been convened at Seattle by the Governing Body of the 

 International Labor Office, and having met in its Twenty-eighth Ses- 

 sion on 6 June 1946, and 



Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard 

 to the certification of able seamen, which is included in the fifth item 

 on the agenda of the Session, and 



Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of an 

 International Convention, 



adopts this twenty-ninth day of June of the year one thousand nine 

 hundred and forty-six the following Convention, which may be cited 

 as the Certification of Able Seamen Convention, 1946 : 



ARTICLE 1 



No person shall be engaged on any vessel as an able seaman unless 

 he is a person who by national laws or regulations is deemed to be 

 competent to perform any duty which may be required of a member of 

 the crew serving in the deck department (other than an officer or 

 leading or specialist rating) and unless he holds a certificate of quali- 

 fication as an able seaman granted in accordance with the provisions 

 of the following articles. 



ARTICLE 2 



1. The competent authority shall make arrangements for the hold- 

 ing of examinations and for the granting of certificates of quali- 

 fication. 



2. No person shall be granted a certificate of qualification unless — 



(a) He has reached a minimum age to be prescribed by the com- 

 petent authority ; 



(b) He has served at sea in the deck department for a minimum 

 period to be prescribed by the competent authority ; and 



(c) He has passed an examination of proficiency to be prescribed 

 by the competent authority. 



3. The prescribed minimum age shall not be less than eighteen years. 



4. The prescribed minimum period of service at sea shall not be less 

 than thirty-six months : Provided that the competent authority may — 



(a) Permit persons with a period of actual service at sea of not 

 less than twenty-four months who have successfully passed through 

 a course of training in an approved training school to reckon the time 

 spent in such training, or ])art thereof, as sea service; and 



(b) Permit persons trained in approved seagoing training ships 

 who have served eighteen months in such ships to be certificated as 

 able seamen upon leaving in good standing. 



5. The prescribed examination shall provide a ]n-actical test of the 

 candidate's knowledge of seamanship and of his ability to carry out 

 effectively all the duties that may be required of an able seaman, in- 

 cluding those of a lifeboatman ; it shall be such as to qualify a success- 

 ful candidate to hold the special lifeboatman's certificate provided for 

 in Article 22 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life 

 at Sea, 1929, or in the corresponding provision of any subsequent Con- 



