Free Deckhand Job Description Templates
Free deckhand job description templates for charter fishing, towboat, ferry, excursion, and commercial fishing. With USCG, Jones Act, and FLSA guidance.
Deckhand Job Description Templates
5 free templates by vessel type, with USCG, Jones Act, and FLSA guidance. Download as DOCX.
Hiring a deckhand is not like hiring for any other hourly job, and most job description templates miss why. A deckhand works on a federally regulated vessel, which usually means Coast Guard credentials, mandatory drug testing, and seaman status that changes how overtime and injury liability work. The generic templates online list "handle lines, clean the deck, assist the captain" and stop there, leaving out everything that actually matters when you hire.
At FirstHR, we build hiring templates for the small charter, fishing, tour, and ferry operations that make this hire, usually an owner-captain without an HR department. The five templates below cover the deckhand by vessel: charter fishing, towboat, ferry, excursion, and commercial fishing, each handling the credentialing and compliance honestly, and the guide to writing a job description covers the fundamentals.
What Is a Deckhand?
A deckhand is a deck-crew member who handles the practical work of running a vessel: lines and docking, deck maintenance, standing watch, and assisting the captain. What sits on top of that core changes completely depending on the boat, from helping anglers fish to making and breaking tow to keeping ferry passengers safe.
For the employer writing the posting, two things matter up front. First, the vessel defines the job: a charter, a towboat, a ferry, an excursion boat, and a fishing vessel all need a deckhand, but the work, season, and pay structure differ sharply, which is why the templates below split by vessel. Second, this is federally regulated maritime work, so credentials, drug testing, and seaman classification come with the role in a way they do not for ordinary hourly jobs. The next section sorts out the deck-crew ranks, and the compliance sections cover the rest.
Deckhand, Ordinary Seaman, Able Seaman, Bosun, and Mate
Deckhand is a general term, and the deck crew has levels worth understanding before you hire. Here is how they relate.
For a first or entry-level hire, you are usually hiring an ordinary seaman; for experienced crew, an able seaman; and to lead a larger deck crew, a bosun. The mate is a licensed officer, a separate, more senior hire above the deck crew. Decide which level you need and name it, since the experience, credentials, and pay differ at each step.
Deckhand Duties and Responsibilities
Across every vessel, deckhand duties group into lines and deck operations, maintenance and gear, guests or catch, and watch and safety. What fills each bucket shifts by vessel, but the structure is shared, which is why the templates follow the same shape.
A strong posting fills these with the specifics of your operation: your vessel and waters, the season, the gear, and the kind of trips you run. For a structured way to scope the role before posting, the guide to defining job responsibilities walks through the process.
Which Template Should You Use?
Pick the template by your vessel. The core deck work runs through all five, but the vessel changes the duties, the season, the pay structure, and the compliance. Use this guide to choose.
5 Free Deckhand Job Description Templates
Download all five as a single Word document or copy individual templates. Each follows the same structure: business and role overview, key responsibilities, qualifications, the FLSA and compliance notes, compensation, and how to apply, with the specifics left as fields. Fill in the brackets and post.
Template 1: Charter Fishing Deckhand
For a charter or for-hire fishing operation: rigs gear, helps paying anglers fish, handles lines, and keeps the deck safe. Often the first deckhand a small charter business hires, frequently seasonal.
Template 2: Towboat / Barge Deckhand
For an inland towing company: makes and breaks tow, handles heavy lines and wires, and works rotational shifts. The largest commercial deckhand segment, with a long tail of small operators.
Template 3: Ferry Deckhand
For a ferry service: handles lines and docking, loads vehicles and passengers, and ensures passenger safety. Common at small private ferry and harbor services.
Template 4: Excursion / Tour Boat Deckhand
For a tour, excursion, or party boat: handles the deck while welcoming and serving guests. Hospitality-leaning and usually seasonal, common at small tour operators.
Template 5: Commercial Fishing Deckhand
For a commercial fishing vessel: sets and hauls gear, processes the catch, and works long hours at sea, often paid a crew share of the catch. Physically demanding and trip-based.
Deckhand Credentials and Compliance
This is the part the generic templates skip entirely, and it is what separates a maritime hire from any other hourly job. Here is what to require and verify, recognizing that the exact rules depend on your vessel and route.
The simplest approach: confirm the Merchant Mariner Credential and TWIC your vessel requires, run pre-employment and random drug testing under federal rules, and verify the medical certificate and minimum age. The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes most water transportation jobs require a TWIC and a Merchant Mariner Credential. Requirements vary by vessel type and route, so confirm yours, and build credential and drug-test capture into onboarding. This is general information, not legal advice.
Are Deckhands Owed Overtime?
Most deckhands are exempt from overtime as seamen, but it is not automatic, and assuming exemption is a real misclassification risk. The reason most qualify: a crew member whose work primarily aids the vessel as a means of transportation is a seaman, and seamen are exempt from federal overtime.
Federal wage law provides a seaman exemption from overtime, and as a guideline the role qualifies when no more than about 20 percent of the time is spent on non-seaman work. Here is how that plays out for deckhand roles.
The key trap is that a worker can be a seaman for injury-liability purposes under the Jones Act while still being owed overtime if they spend substantial time on non-navigational work like crane operation or loading. Guest-service-heavy excursion roles can blur the line too. So do not default every deckhand to overtime-exempt: classify from how the person actually spends their time. This is general information, not legal advice.
Deckhand Pay
Deckhand pay varies widely by vessel, sector, and pay structure, so benchmark against your specific operation rather than a single number.
Within that range, sector and experience matter: market data shows inland and deep-sea operations and experienced able seamen toward the upper part, while entry-level and seasonal roles sit lower. Pay structures vary too: many deckhands are paid hourly or a day rate, charter deckhands often earn tips, and commercial fishing crews are frequently paid a share of the catch. Benchmark against your sector and region, factor in tips or crew share where they apply, and the templates leave compensation as a field so you can set it for your operation.
Deckhand Skills and Qualifications
Deckhand qualifications are practical: physical fitness, the right credentials, and reliability, so name them concretely rather than listing generic traits.
| Weak requirement | Strong requirement |
|---|---|
| Physically able | Able to lift 50+ lbs and work on a moving deck |
| Can swim | Strong swimmer, comfortable in and around water |
| Boat experience | Deck, line-handling, or fishing experience |
| Has credentials | TWIC and Merchant Mariner Credential per vessel |
| Reliable | Dependable, safety-minded, and a team player |
The core is a physically capable, reliable crew member with the credentials your vessel requires and a safety-first attitude. Name the credentials and physical demands honestly, and keep each line job-related, the SHRM job description tools describe a good job description as a plain-language summary of a position's tasks, duties, and responsibilities. Keep the posting neutral, since the EEOC prohibits job advertisements that show a preference based on protected characteristics.
How to Write a Deckhand Job Description
A strong deckhand posting takes about 20 minutes and does two jobs: it tells a candidate the vessel, season, and physical demands they screen on, and it gets the credentials and classification right so you hire compliantly. Here is the process the templates are built around. If this is among your first hires, the small business hiring guide covers the steps around the posting itself.
Hiring Your First Deckhand
The largest deckhand employers are enterprise offshore and barge fleets with crewing departments. But a huge share of deckhand hiring happens at small charter, fishing, tour, and ferry operations, where the owner-captain is the hiring manager and there is no HR department. The Coast Guard credentialing, drug testing, and seaman classification apply just the same. Here is how to approach the posting and the hire for that reality.
After You Hire: Onboarding a Deckhand
The job description is step one, and a deckhand hire is credential- and compliance-heavy, so onboarding starts with capturing the maritime requirements. Send the offer and get it signed, then complete Form I-9 and the rest of the new hire paperwork and tax forms, capture the TWIC and Merchant Mariner Credential where required, run pre-employment drug testing and enroll the deckhand in your random program, and confirm the medical certificate.
Then classify the role correctly, since most deckhands are seaman-exempt but heavy non-navigational or guest-service duties can change that, and orient the new deckhand to your vessel, safety procedures, and how you run a trip, the kind of structured start that good onboarding is built on. Maritime work is seasonal with steady turnover, so a repeatable process saves real time on every hire, and once your offer is ready the offer letter template handles the core terms. FirstHR connects the offer with e-signature, runs the onboarding workflow, and stores credentials, drug-test records, and medical certificates in document management where you can produce them for a Coast Guard check, built for businesses without an HR team. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a deckhand do?
A deckhand is a deck-crew member who handles the practical work of running a vessel, with duties that vary widely by the type of boat. The core work across all vessels is handling lines and assisting with docking and mooring, maintaining the deck and equipment through cleaning, chipping, and painting, standing watch and assisting the captain, and following safety and security procedures. Beyond that, the job changes by vessel: a charter fishing deckhand rigs gear and helps paying anglers, a towboat deckhand makes and breaks tow and handles heavy lines on inland rivers, a ferry deckhand loads vehicles and keeps passengers safe, an excursion deckhand mixes deck work with guest service, and a commercial fishing deckhand sets and hauls gear and processes the catch. The role typically requires no formal education and is learned through on-the-job training, but it is physically demanding and, depending on the vessel, federally regulated. Deckhands range from entry-level ordinary seamen up to experienced able seamen and the bosun who leads the deck crew.
What is the difference between an ordinary seaman, an able seaman, and a deckhand?
These are levels of deck crew rather than separate jobs, and deckhand is the general term that covers them. An ordinary seaman (OS) is the newest, least-experienced deck crew member, learning the trade and building the sea time needed to advance. An able seaman (AB) is an experienced, credentialed deckhand who makes up most of a working crew, handles the full range of deck duties, stands watch, and can steer under an officer, which requires accumulated sea time and a Coast Guard endorsement. The bosun, or boatswain, is the most senior deckhand and the chief of the deck crew, coordinating the other deckhands and reporting to the mate. Above the deck crew sits the mate, a licensed officer who supervises the deckhands and reports to the captain, which is a different, officer-level hire rather than a deckhand. When you write a posting, decide whether you need an entry-level OS, an experienced AB, or a bosun to lead the crew, since the experience, credentials, and pay differ at each level.
Does a deckhand need a license or credential?
It depends on the vessel and route, but most water transportation jobs require credentials. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most water transportation jobs require a Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) from the TSA and a Merchant Mariner Credential (MMC) from the Coast Guard, plus related endorsements. Entry-level deckhands on some inland or near-coastal uninspected vessels may be able to start as uncredentialed ordinary seafarers, but ocean-going and Coast-Guard-inspected vessels require an MMC and a TWIC, and open-ocean or international voyages require STCW Basic Safety Training. Credentialed mariners also need a Coast Guard medical certificate and must meet vision and physical standards, and entry-level ratings generally require a minimum age of 16. Beyond credentials, federal rules require pre-employment and random drug testing for crew. The exact requirements depend on your vessel type, size, route, and whether the vessel is inspected, so confirm what applies to your operation before you hire, and state the requirement clearly in the posting. The templates leave credentials as a field so you can set them for your vessel.
Are deckhands required to take drug tests?
Yes. Federal regulations require marine employers to drug test safety-sensitive crew, including deckhands, and this applies even to small operators. The rules require pre-employment testing before a crew member starts safety-sensitive work and random testing throughout employment, plus testing for reasonable cause, after a serious marine incident, and on a periodic basis for credential renewal. The marine employer is legally responsible for the testing program even when it uses a third-party consortium or administrator to run it, so a small charter or tour operator cannot skip this by outsourcing. The Coast Guard sets the annual random testing rate for the industry. In practice, this means even a small six-passenger charter operation must drug test a deckhand before they start and enroll them in a random testing program. Build pre-employment drug testing into your hiring process and random testing into your ongoing compliance, and keep records you can produce if the Coast Guard asks. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm the current requirements for your operation.
Are deckhands exempt from overtime?
Most deckhands are exempt from overtime because they are seamen, but it is not automatic, and misclassification is a real risk. Federal wage law exempts seamen from overtime, and a deckhand whose work primarily aids the vessel as a means of transportation generally qualifies. As a guideline, the exemption applies when no more than about 20 percent of the employee's time is spent on non-seaman work. The complication is that a worker can be a seaman for injury-liability purposes under the Jones Act while still being owed overtime under wage law if they spend substantial time on non-navigational tasks. Courts have found workers who did heavy non-navigational work, such as crane operation or loading and unloading, owed overtime despite being seamen in other respects. Guest-service-heavy roles on tour and excursion boats can also blur the line. So do not assume every deckhand is overtime-exempt: look at how the person actually spends their time, and classify from the real duties rather than the title. This is general information, not legal advice; seaman status is fact-specific.
How much does a deckhand make?
Sailors and marine oilers, the federal occupation that includes deckhands, earned a median annual wage of about $49,610, or roughly $23.85 an hour, based on recent federal data. The range is wide: the lower end sits around $33,350 a year and the upper end around $81,890, varying by vessel type, experience, and industry. Inland and deep-sea operations, support activities for water transportation, and experienced able seamen tend toward the upper part of the range, while entry-level and seasonal roles sit lower. Pay structures also vary by sector: many deckhands are paid hourly or a day rate, charter deckhands often earn tips on top, and commercial fishing crews are frequently paid a share of the catch rather than a wage. Because pay depends so much on the vessel, the season, and the pay structure, benchmark against your specific sector and region rather than a single number, and factor in tips or crew share where they apply. The templates leave compensation as a field so you can set it for your operation.
Do small businesses hire deckhands?
Yes, and small businesses are a core part of who hires deckhands. While the largest deckhand employers are enterprise offshore supply, cruise, and barge fleets, a large share of deckhand hiring happens at small operations. Charter and for-hire fishing is a highly fragmented small-business sector, with thousands of charter and headboat vessels, most carrying six or fewer anglers and crewed by just a handful of people. Excursion and tour boats, small towboat and barge operators, and small private ferry and harbor services round out the small-business deckhand employers. These are exactly the kind of owner-run businesses, often with no dedicated HR department, that FirstHR is built for. The classic first-deckhand-hire moment is a charter captain bringing on a deckhand for the season, or a growing tour operator adding crew. Because the work is seasonal and turnover is common, these businesses hire deckhands repeatedly, which makes a fast, compliant posting and onboarding process genuinely useful. The small-business reality, plus the maritime compliance, is what the templates on this page are built around.
What happens after I hire a deckhand?
Send the offer, capture the maritime credentials, and onboard with Coast Guard compliance in mind, since a deckhand hire carries requirements an ordinary job does not. Start with the offer and get it signed, then complete Form I-9 and tax forms and your basic policies. Because this is maritime work, capture the deckhand's TWIC and Merchant Mariner Credential where required, run pre-employment drug testing and enroll them in your random testing program, and confirm the Coast Guard medical certificate and any required safety training. Classify the role correctly, since most deckhands are seaman-exempt from overtime but heavy non-navigational or guest-service duties can change that. Then orient the new deckhand to your vessel, your safety procedures, the gear and equipment, and how your operation runs a trip from dock to dock. For a small charter, tour, or fishing business without an HR department, a repeatable onboarding process keeps credentials, drug tests, and documents organized and ready for a Coast Guard check. FirstHR handles the offer with e-signature, new-hire paperwork, an onboarding workflow, and document management for credentials and certificates. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.