Maritime information has to be right, because lives, ships, and livelihoods can depend on it. That responsibility shapes how everything on this site is researched, written, and checked.
This page sets out how we work, where our information comes from, and the limits of what a reference like this can and cannot do. It is also a standing invitation to hold us to it.
How We Source
We build articles from primary sources wherever possible. The foundation is the body of international maritime law and guidance: the IMO conventions that govern the industry, chiefly SOLAS, STCW, MARPOL, and the COLREGs, together with flag-state administration guidance and classification society rules.
We prefer the original instrument to a secondhand summary. When a figure, interval, or definition matters, we trace it back to the convention or regulation that sets it, rather than repeating what other websites happen to say.
How We Fact-Check
Technical specifics are verified before publication, not drafted from memory. Servicing intervals, certificate levels, stability criteria, and similar regulated numbers are checked against current primary sources, because these are exactly the details that go stale or get garbled as they pass from site to site.
Where genuine uncertainty exists, or where national practice differs from the international baseline, we say so plainly instead of smoothing it over. This care matters most in our safety and survival content, where a wrong number is not just an error but a hazard.
How Articles Are Produced
Our articles are researched, drafted, illustrated, and edited with the help of modern tools, including AI, and every one is reviewed and checked against primary sources by a person before it is published. Diagrams are produced in house to a consistent house style rather than pulled from stock libraries.
We think transparency about method builds more trust than pretending the work happens by magic. What we will not do is publish a regulated fact we have not verified, whatever tool helped draft the sentence around it.
Accuracy and Corrections
We will sometimes get things wrong, and when we do, we want to fix them. If you spot an error, an outdated figure, or something that simply does not match current practice, please tell us, and we will correct it promptly.
Material corrections are made openly rather than quietly buried. Articles are dated, and we revisit them as conventions are amended and practice evolves, so that what you read reflects the current standard rather than the one in force when it was first written.
Independence and Funding
The Seafarer is independently published and edited by Edward Caine. It is not sponsored by, and does not speak for, any flag state, training provider, manufacturer, or shipping company.
Some links on the site are affiliate links, and some pages carry advertising, which helps keep the reference free to read. That funding never decides what we cover or what we conclude: recommendations and explanations are editorial, and we would write them the same way with or without a commercial link attached.
What This Site Is Not
This is a reference, not a replacement for training. Nothing here is a substitute for accredited instruction, a valid Certificate of Competency, or supervised time at sea, and nothing on the site is operational authority aboard a real vessel.
In any actual operation, the official publications, your flag state’s requirements, your company’s safety management system, and your master’s orders take precedence over anything written here. Use this site to understand the principles and prepare your thinking, then rely on current official sources and proper training to act.
Get in Touch
For corrections, questions, or partnership enquiries, please reach us through the contact page. You can read more about the project and its purpose on the about page.