The entry door to working at sea. A short safety course, a medical, and you can be on a boat this season.
Click through it
Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$58,000
New hire
$37,000
Senior on a unionized vessel
$89,000
Job Bank's national median is $28 an hour, about $58,000 a year at full-time hours. Unionized tug, ferry and Great Lakes crews sit near the top. Small tour boats and seasonal work sit near the bottom.
About $18 to $22 an hour
Roughly $37,000 to $46,000 a year at full-time hours
On most vessels meals and a bunk come with the job while you are aboard, so what you keep is higher than the hourly rate suggests.
About $89,000 a year
Senior deck crew on a unionized coastal or Great Lakes vessel
Overtime on a rotation is normal, and you can reach this without any certificate beyond safety training. Moving up to an officer ticket pays more again.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is the minimum set of tickets: basic Marine Emergency Duties safety training, marine first aid, the Transport Canada medical exam and your own boots, gloves and wet gear. The high end is a higher level of the safety training and better gear. A few weeks and under about $2,500 makes you employable, which is about as cheap an entry as any job on this site. Some employers and unions pay for the courses once you are hired, which can bring your own share close to zero.
Under about $2,500 and a few weeks gets you employable. Some employers and unions will pay for the courses once you are hired.
Meals and accommodation aboard
You are not paying rent or buying groceries on a rotation.
Rotations with real time off
Patterns like two weeks on and two weeks off are common on tugs and coastal vessels.
Union coverage on many vessels
Seaspan, for example, fills deckhand jobs through the Seafarers' International Union of Canada and an International Longshore and Warehouse Union local rather than hiring direct.
A visible route up
Sea time as a deckhand counts toward officer certificates later.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
The fastest way onto a Canadian commercial vessel. Weeks, not years.
Be 16 to 18 and reasonably fit
Now
Minimum ages vary by vessel type and employer, and the work is physical.
Transport Canada marine medical
One appointment
An approved doctor confirms you are fit for sea service. You cannot work commercially without it.
Safety training
A few days to two weeks
Marine Emergency Duties training plus marine basic first aid. Which level you need depends on the size of vessel and how far offshore it goes.
Get hired
Weeks to months
Apply to tug, ferry, barge and tour operators, or sign on at a union hiring hall. Willingness to start as a casual is the fastest way in.
Build sea time
Ongoing
Logged sea service counts toward a bridge watch rating and, later, officer certificates.
Physical education
Line handling, mooring and cargo work are heavy.
Shop or technology
You maintain gear, winches and paintwork every day.
English
Radio calls and safety procedures have to be understood exactly.
Co-op placement
A summer on a tour boat, marina or fishing vessel is the best possible start.
Deckhand is not a licensed profession the way a ship officer is, but you still cannot just walk aboard. Transport Canada requires a marine medical certificate and Marine Emergency Duties safety training for commercial crew, with the exact level set by the size of vessel and how far from shore it goes. On small vessels close to shore the requirement can be as light as a basic safety certificate for every crew member. Once you have sea time, you can apply for a bridge watch rating certificate, which is a real step up in pay and duties.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Bridge watch rating
A Transport Canada certificate that lets you stand a lookout watch. Needs logged sea time.
Small Vessel Operator Proficiency
Lets you operate small commercial vessels yourself. Opens up water taxi, tour and survey work.
Advanced firefighting and survival craft
Required on larger vessels and a common condition of promotion.
Crane, forklift or tanker familiarization
Cargo handling tickets that employers pay a premium for.
Knots and line handling
Learn them before you show up. It is the first thing anyone judges you on.
A cook's ticket or willingness to cook
Small crews value anyone who can feed them.
A driver's licence
Getting to a dock at 4am is your problem, not the company's.
No seasickness
Find out on a rough ferry crossing before you commit.
Plenty of people do a summer on a tour boat or a fishing vessel and move on. Plenty of others stay, log sea time, and are second mate five years later with no tuition debt at all. Deckhand is one of the few jobs in Canada where you can start at 18 with a two-week course and still end up commanding a ship.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Watches are usually six hours on and six off, around the clock, so the word day stops meaning much. On watch you handle mooring lines, stand lookout, help with docking and undocking, rig and secure cargo, and steer when told to. Off watch there is endless maintenance: chipping rust, painting, greasing winches, washing down decks. On a tug you are on deck in wind and spray making up tows. On a ferry it is a tight loop of docking, loading, crossing and unloading, over and over.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Seaspan, one of the largest marine operators on the west coast, states that its seagoing staff must be members in good standing of the relevant union, and directs deckhand applicants to the union rather than to the company.
Transport Canada sets different levels of Marine Emergency Duties training. A small commercial vessel working within 25 nautical miles of shore has a lighter requirement than a ship crossing an ocean.
Every day you work on a commercial vessel can be logged, and those days are what Transport Canada counts when you apply for a higher certificate. Deckhands who keep a clean logbook from day one get ahead fastest.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.