Martin Lex is the pen name of the 7S1L safety desk: SOLAS, lifesaving and firefighting gear, muster drills, emergency signals and safe work on board. Portrait is illustrative.
"How many months?" is the first thing a seafarer asks about a new contract, before the wage and before the ship. The agent's answer is usually a number between six and ten. What matters is what the paper says, and what the paper is allowed to say. The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 does not fix a contract length. It fixes something more useful: how long you can be kept on board before the shipowner owes you the flight home.
Seafarer contract duration is decided in three places: the flag state's law, the collective agreement if one covers your ship, and your own seafarer employment agreement (SEA). Practice adds a fourth layer, what companies in your sector usually offer. This article takes them apart, with the paragraph numbers you can point to at the crewing office.
The MLC limit: a service period of less than 12 months
Standard A2.5, paragraph 2 requires every flag state to set the maximum duration of service periods on board after which a seafarer is entitled to repatriation, and that period must be less than 12 months. Not 12 months, less than 12. So a contract can be six, eight or ten months long, but a clause that keeps you on board beyond the flag's maximum, or lets the company decide when the contract ends, collides with the convention. The ILO Committee of Experts reads the rule together with the paid leave owed under Standard A2.4: once that leave is counted, continuous service on board should in principle stay under eleven months.
The eleven months are the sum of two entitlements. Standard A2.5 keeps the service period below twelve months, and Standard A2.4, paragraph 2 gives you paid annual leave of at least 2.5 calendar days per month of employment, leave that paragraph 3 says you cannot sign away. Twelve months minus the leave you earn along the way lands just under eleven. Port State control officers in Australia enforce that figure as a hard line.
The agreement itself must state how it ends. Standard A2.1, paragraph 4 lists the mandatory contents of a seafarer employment agreement, and "the termination of the agreement and the conditions thereof" is one of them: for an indefinite agreement the conditions entitling either party to terminate it and the notice period, for a fixed-term agreement the expiry date, for a voyage agreement the port of destination and the time after arrival before you are discharged. A contract without an end date or without termination conditions is missing a mandatory clause, and the MLC Contract Check marks it as missing rather than guessing.
Typical seafarer contract duration by sector
So what do contracts actually say? The convention leaves room, and the market fills it differently by sector. None of the figures below are law. They are common practice, and your own SEA can sit anywhere under the flag's ceiling.
On deep-sea cargo ships (container, bulk, tanker) ratings commonly sign for six to nine months. An AB or an oiler on a nine month contract is nothing unusual on a bulk carrier working tramp routes. Officers sign shorter. Three to four months is common for masters, chief officers and chief engineers; junior officers sit between the two. The difference is market power, not law: senior officers are harder to replace.
Cruise contracts commonly run four to eight months by line and department, with hotel, galley and housekeeping crew at the long end and officers at the short end. Breaks between contracts are often unpaid beyond the accrued leave, which is why the A2.4 leave calculation deserves a close read before sign-on.
Offshore is the exception. Supply vessels, wind farm support and much of the North Sea work on equal time rotations, commonly a few weeks on and the same off, often under permanent employment rather than a fresh SEA per trip. Move from deep sea to offshore and the question changes shape: the rotation matters more than the months.
Whatever the sector, seafarer contract duration is a number you negotiate before sign-on. On board it only ever moves in one direction.
Extension: when "operational reasons" is not a reason
Many agreements carry a line like "may be extended by the Company for operational reasons for up to N months". Read it with the limit above. If the original term plus the extension crosses the flag's maximum service period, the extension clause is promising something the flag state does not allow. An extension should be a new agreement of your own choosing, signed while you are still entitled to go home, not a lever the company pulls in month nine. The ITF advice for crew who are asked to stay on is simple: get the extension in writing, with the new end date, and confirm that repatriation at the owner's cost still applies from that date.
A clean extension is short and boring: a written addendum with the vessel, the new end date, unchanged wage and leave terms, and your signature, with total service staying under the flag's limit. Anything offered verbally in the ship's office in month eight is not an extension. It is a delay with witnesses. And if an agent ties the extension, or your next contract, to a payment, recruitment must be free of charge to the seafarer; what agencies may and may not charge is in the manning agency fees guide.
Crew from the Philippines sign on a national standard employment contract under the Department of Migrant Workers; its duration rules are part of that standard text. Read them in the contract itself rather than trusting the agent's summary. Indian, Indonesian and Ukrainian crew have their own national frameworks on top of the flag-state rules, and the same habit applies: the standard is your floor, and the floor is only useful if you know where it sits.
Notice: at least seven days, for both sides
Standard A2.1, paragraphs 5 and 6: flag states set minimum notice periods for early termination of not less than seven days, for the seafarer and for the shipowner alike, and must allow shorter notice without penalty for compassionate or other urgent reasons, for example a death in the family. A contract that gives the company a short fuse and you a long one, or that charges you the replacement crew member's travel if you leave early, is not applying the standard. That replacement-travel clause, and the repatriation deduction that usually travels with it, are two of the 10 Red Flags in a Seafarer Contract.
When the months run out
Past the flag's maximum service period, repatriation stops being a request and becomes an entitlement under Regulation 2.5, at the shipowner's cost: the flight, the lodging on the way, the food. Wages keep running at the contract rate until you are off the ship. If you want to check whether that rate itself holds up, the ILO figures are in Seafarer Minimum Wage 2026.
Port State control treats expired service like any other MLC deficiency. Inspectors ask for the SEAs and the service records, and the gap between the end date and today is not something a master can talk away. Australia is the clearest example: AMSA treats eleven months of continuous service as the maximum, checks employment agreements during routine inspections, and has detained ships until crew serving past the limit were repatriated and outstanding wages paid.
The rule broke down badly exactly once. During the 2020 crew change crisis the IMO put the number of seafarers stranded beyond their contracts at around 400,000 at the peak. AMSA went back to the eleven month line in 2021, and the ITF told crews with expired contracts they had the right to stop working and demand repatriation. Inspectors still read service records with that year in mind.
Already on board and past your end date? The service period limit is a ground for repatriation, not a favor. Supervisor, master and the on-board complaint procedure, then the flag administration, then Port State Control in the next port, then the ITF. Keep the dates in writing.
Cruise crew: same convention, longer months
Cruise ship crew contracts are known for long runs and short breaks, especially in the hotel department. The MLC applies on a cruise ship exactly as on a bulk carrier: the flag state's maximum service period, the repatriation entitlement, the notice rules. The flags behind most cruise contracts are the Bahamas, Malta, Panama, Bermuda and Italy; the tool's flag pages name the administration, the governing law and the complaint contact for each. What a hotel-department contract should say beyond the months is in Cruise Ship Crew Contracts: Your MLC Rights in the Hotel Department.
What to do before you sign
Find the duration clause, the extension clause and the termination clause, and read them together. Then run the contract through the free MLC Contract Check: pick the flag, upload the PDF or photos, and the report tells you clause by clause whether the duration is stated, whether the extension respects the flag's limit, whether notice is symmetric, and whether repatriation stays on the shipowner. The step-by-step is in How to Use the MLC Contract Check.
One more thing crew already know: sign-on to sign-off is the real calendar on deck and in the engine room. It is the reason the Sign On Sign Off crew hoodie exists at all, in a line of seafarer hoodies built around crew routines rather than ocean decoration, next to the matching Sign On Set.
Source note
Maritime Labour Convention, 2006, as amended (ILO), Standards A2.1 paragraphs 4 to 6, A2.4 paragraphs 2 and 3, A2.5 paragraph 2; ITF Seafarers: your rights under the MLC; AMSA: maximum period of shipboard service for seafarers; flag-state facts: MLC Contract Check, flag states. The typical contract lengths by sector are industry practice, not regulation, and vary by company, rank and collective agreement.
This article is editorial context from a crew perspective, not legal advice. For a dispute about your own agreement, talk to your union or the ITF.
FAQ
How many months can a seaman's contract be under the MLC?
The MLC sets no fixed contract length. It requires the flag state to set a maximum service period on board of less than 12 months, after which you are entitled to repatriation at the shipowner's cost (Standard A2.5, paragraph 2). Contract lengths vary by rank, ship type and collective agreement; what counts is the figure in your agreement, the extension clause next to it, and the flag's limit.
How long are typical seafarer contracts?
Common practice, not law: six to nine months for ratings on deep-sea cargo ships, three to four months for senior officers, four to eight months for cruise crew depending on line and department. Offshore vessels mostly work in short equal time rotations instead. The legal line above all of it is the flag state's maximum service period.
Can the company extend my contract without asking me?
A one-sided extension clause is a red flag. Any extension has to respect the flag state's maximum service period, and it should be a written agreement with a new end date that you sign, not a decision taken for you in month nine. Get it in writing, and confirm repatriation still applies from the new date.
What happens if I stay on board longer than 11 months?
You are entitled to repatriation at the shipowner's cost, and wages keep running until you are off the ship. Port State control can treat expired service as a detainable deficiency: Australia's AMSA enforces eleven months as the maximum continuous service and has detained ships until crew past the limit were repatriated.
What is the minimum notice period to leave a ship early?
Standard A2.1, paragraph 5: not less than seven days, set by the flag state, for both parties. Shorter notice without penalty must be possible for compassionate or other urgent reasons (paragraph 6).
7SHORT1LONG® is a Seafarer Identity Brand. Month nine is where contracts are won or lost, and we have been there.
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