For many years, I have wanted to go through the process to receive my Merchant Mariner Credential, or MMC, commonly known as a captain’s license. While getting my MMC would enable me to operate certain vessels commercially - in my case, an operator of uninspected passenger vessels (OUPV) less than 100 gross tons - most of my ambition was fueled simply by a personal desire to achieve something higher than just a common boater’s license.
I began the process at the beginning of January, and while it all went relatively quickly, it was incredibly involved with many hoops to jump through. I had to:
complete a Coast Guard (USCG) approved course of study;
pass a USCG proctored exam;
apply for and receive a TWIC card (Transportation Worker Identification Credential);
pass a USCG-specific physical exam;
pass a USCG-specific drug test;
become certified in CPR, First Aid, and AED;
fill out an MMC application and have it notarized;
document sea service time;
pay an application fee.
Complete an approved course of study. There are a couple different ways to complete an approved course of study. You can take in-person classes provided by USCG-approved instructors, or you can take online courses and study at your convenience. I chose the latter option, purchasing coursework using the slightly-dated yet effective material provided by Mariners Learning System. It covered four main topics: Rules of the Road, Deck Safety, Deck General, and Piloting and Navigation. There was a tremendous amount of material to learn and memorize, including lights and dayshapes, sound and light signals, firefighting, environmental protection, weather, maritime law, the difference between inland and international rules… the list goes on and on. While most of the material was already familiar to me since I have been sailing all my life, there was a lot I didn’t know, and it was a lot of work to learn everything. However, their online process made it very easy to study on my own, and I was able to pass all four modules within three weeks.
Pass a USCG proctored exam. Once I had passed the modules within the Mariners Learning System, I had to take an online, recorded exam administered through Mariners Learning System and evaluated by a USCG-authorized proctor. While I had five days to take all four exams, I ended up taking them all in one day. Rules of the Road and Piloting and Navigation had to be passed by at least 90%, and Deck Safety and Deck General had to be passed by at least 70%. Fortunately, I was able to pass them all on the first try, but it was not easy!
Apply for and receive a TWIC card. Any licensed mariner is required to obtain a Transportation Worker Identification Credential, which would allow them access to secure areas of the nation’s maritime facilities and vessels. This was the easiest part of the whole process. I simply had to show up at an enrollment center in New London where they took my picture, fingerprints, and other information. I walked out of the facility fifteen minutes later, and after they ran a background check, my TWIC card showed up in the mail within a week!
Pass a USCG-specific physical exam. This was the hardest part of the whole process as I had to wait hours at a Concentra Urgent Care facility since they advertised administering Coast Guard approved physicals. The physical exam itself lasted about three minutes, but the medical officer neglected to fill in a few key boxes on the ten-page form. When I discovered their error later that day, they wouldn’t electronically send me the corrected form, nor would they fax anything - I had to drive back to the facility another day and get a hard copy. After that, I found yet another error on the form that needed to be fixed, and I had to go back a third time. The amount of time spent getting this form in order was exhausting.
Pass a USCG-specific drug test. While at Concentra Urgent Care, I managed to have a drug test taken. However, the results provided some days later were not filled out on the required USCG form, so I had to track down the fluid-testing facility in Kansas City, Missouri to have their medical offer fill out the correct form and fax it to me. What a pain. Between this and the physical exam, I hope I won’t need to go back to a Concentra Urgent Care again anytime soon.
Become certified in CPR, First Aid, and AED. Although the Coast Guard seems to prefer classes provided by the Red Cross, they now recognize - as of 2019 - certifications provided by the American Heart Association (AHA). Since there is an AHA classroom only twenty minutes from my house, I scheduled an appointment and spent one of my days off taking the class. Unfortunately, the Coast Guard requires a specific certificate if administered through the AHA, and the class instructor neglected to give it to me at the end of the day. Only later on, when the National Maritime Center (NMC) was reviewing my entire application did they inform me of the oversight, and I had to get in touch with the class instructor to have him send me the appropriate certificate which I then forwarded to the NMC. This delayed things a bit, but at least the oversight was corrected.
Fill out an MMC application and have it notarized. I watched a number of YouTube videos which were helpful in determining exactly how to fill out the application correctly. It wasn’t difficult, but there were certain boxes I needed to check and language I needed to use so that my application wouldn’t be rejected. The secretary at the church where I work, a Notary Public, was only happy to administer the required Mariner’s Oath and notarize my application.
Document sea service time. The Coast Guard requires, for an OUPV license, at least 90 days of sea time within the past three years and at least 360 total. Fortunately, I was able to count the time sailing ORION as sea time. The Coast Guard counts four hours on the water as a single day. Since I keep this website, it was easy to go back and look at the past Sailing Pictures pages to help me determine all my time on the water since I bought ORION back in 2007. It took some time filling out the form, but once I added up the totals, I was well within USCG requirements.
Pay an application fee. This was the last step I was able to accomplish online. I printed out the receipt, gathered my application, TWIC card receipt, CPR/First Aid/AED certification, drug test result, physical exam form, sea service form, proof of ORION’s registration (for the sea service form), and certificate of completing the USCG-approved curriculum, scanned everything in to create a .pdf file, and sent it to the nearest USCG Regional Exam Center (REC) in New York. After an initial review, they sent it to the NMC headquarters in West Virginia where they began their in-depth evaluation.
After two months of waiting and occasional auto-generated e-mail updates from the NMC - as well as a slight delay with the CPR certificate mix-up - I finally received my MMC in the mail from the Coast Guard. I’m both excited to have it and relieved the waiting is over. While I still don’t have definite plans to use it in any capacity in the immediate future, it does give me a lot of options I didn’t have before.
Finally, I owe a great deal to ORION, as all my documented sea time was aboard her. Without ORION, I would never have been able to apply for my MMC.
