Maritime English Phrases for Seafarers: Essential Communication

Posted on Mar 8, 2025 in Other vocational courses

Essential Maritime English Phrases for Seafarers

  • Where do you work?
  • I work onboard, but I do not work on deck. I work in the engine room.
  • The galley boy cleans the cabins.
  • The captain speaks Spanish (Español).
  • A foot is twelve inches.
  • Do you want to come to the office?
  • Be careful, those fathoms and charts are in feet, not meters.
  • This small ship does not go to South Africa; she always goes to Argentina.
  • Ashore
  • Do you work?
  • The oilers do not wash the holds.
  • The speed is now twelve knots.
  • What does the cook do onboard?
  • What is the capacity of tank number one?
  • Does this ship load grain?
  • No, our ship doesn’t load grain, but she loads about five hundred tons of frozen fish.
  • Where does your ship fish?
  • She usually fishes in South Africa, but now she is fishing between Africa and the Canary Islands.
  • How do you calculate the draft?
  • I always calculate the draft in feet and inches.
  • Why do you sail with your ship on Tuesday?
  • Our agent needs your discharge book.
  • The nurse has her luggage in my cabin.
  • The boiler valves work well, normally to fifty pounds per square inch, and we do not need to phone your workshop.
  • The Chief Officer always writes his logbook in his office, and he is now calculating how many tons of fuel are onboard.
  • The length of their ship is three hundred and five feet.
  • Why do you go to the office every day? Because I work there.
  • I phone our agent when we need fresh water.
  • Do not phone the agent; we usually phone the waterman.
  • The seamen open the holds in the morning and close the hatches in the afternoon.
  • Does that young greaser smoke?
  • Twenty fathoms of the bosun’s wire is about to be cut.
  • The agent is asking if there is any cargo on deck.
  • Yes, we have some cargo between hatch number two and hatch number three.

When are you coming to my vessel?

  • Today is not the fourth of July; it is the fifth.
  • This ship is going to fish for hake.
  • The electrician is going to repair the lights on deck.
  • Stop the port side engine sixth after the buoy.
  • The fishing ship is leaving at four o’clock.
  • What do you do? I’m cleaning the chart room.
  • When the ship is fishing, we work a lot.
  • Clean these glasses. I have some whiskey in my cabin.
  • When the ship is in drydock, the seamen are with their wives.
  • Is the agent still onboard?
  • No, he is out; he is going to inform our owners.
  • There is a shoal among those buoys.
  • Which of these books are you reading?
  • Is the third officer calculating the dead weight?
  • No, the third officer does not calculate the dead weight.
  • We do our duties after rest.
  • Do you see that lighthouse? It’s Finisterre.
  • When the ship goes full speed ahead, it is between twelve and fifteen knots.
  • Our agent never comes onboard before eight o’clock.
  • Are they still repairing the main engine?
  • Where are the keys to the chart room?
  • There is a green light between that lighthouse and that big house.
  • There are bags among those two empty boxes.
  • The waterman asks if you want to fill the tanks.
  • The next port of call is La Coruña.