How can I become a captain in merchant navy?

Hi Shivam, There are two routes (assuming that you mean a Master of a merchant ship on international trade). The first is to begin at a nautical college as a student/cadet and obtain the required knowledge and a modicum of experience at school and on relatively short periods on ships at sea. Upon graduation there are mandatory short courses required which vary somewhat, including the important examinations from the Indian authorities, followed by the issuance of your very first and highly prized certificate of competency, as a Second Mate, Foreigh Going! You will then gain more experience at sea, write more examinations and obtain your next certificate as Mate, Foreign Going. After more seatime and more examinations you will finally obtain the highly prized certificate as Master, Foreign Going! But you must still gain more seatime to gain more experience, and there are also a raft of short courses to take in all sorts of fields. The Endorsements that you will receive from those courses (some of which you may have obtained early in your career) are what really tell the tale when it comes to getting jobs. They will include subjects like dynamic positioning, navigation simulator (including the all-important radar), specific trade certifications such as tankers, and so on. They are critical! Once you have the certification, the experience, the endorsements and can convince the manager/owner that you can be trusted with his/her prized possession, you will be given command of your first ship, and as you gain more experience in command you will get to command better, bigger ships. Good luck! For your first lesson, repeat after me - Captain is a title, not a position. The person in charge of a ship is the Master, just like it says on all the regulations and certificates. All the best.

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