Marcrew Schiffahrts GmbH

Marcrew Schiffahrts GmbH is a purely third party crew management company established in Hamburg Germany in 1999. Using the expertise of Marlow Navigation Co. Ltd., the aim of the company was to offer high quality crew management services to German Ship owning companies which meet the German tonnage tax requirements.

With the growing acceptance of the tonnage tax system Marcrew Schiffahrts GmbH was able to steadily expand their business and improve their services. During these years Marcrew Schiffahrts GmbH was able to build up a reliable worldwide network of qualified agencies which are able to maintain and supply highly qualified crew for a wide range of ship types.

Besides our wide international agency network, we maintain our own agency in Hamburg. Our agency department is our direct link to our seamen and the vessels of our clients. It enables us to provide a complete range of customer-oriented services.

Crew Manning Services

Marcrew Schiffahrts GmbH provides crew management to german clients having vessels under the german tonnage tax system. At present Marcrew Schiffahrts GmbH has approximately 3400 crew members on board clients’ vessels.

These vessels are operated world wide and vary in a range of dry cargo vessels, cellular vessels and chemical tankers.

Services rendered to our clients are on a lump sum basis. The total amount depends on factors such as crew nationality, trading area, the type of union cover, crew complement and special requirements by owners. All crew related expenses, such as travel expenses, insurance premiums, flag state documents, Union contributions, payroll services etc are included in the crew management contract.

All crew members employed by the Marlow group (in total approximately 13.000 at any time on board) are recruited using the network of coordinated and controlled offices. Applicants, current and ex-crew, are carefully screened by former seafaring staff, to ensure that only qualified and properly STCW certified crew are accepted into the Marcrew and Marlow employment pool. The worldwide subsidiaries also ensure a close link to the crew employed by Marlow or Marcrew and they deal with any problems, needs and requests of our seafaring personnel.

Our clients have access to all the details of the crew on board their vessels. Marcrew and Marlow has established an online customer access where owners and managers can review details such as crew lists, crew certification, crew performance and scheduled crew changes. The permanently accessible online database is a close link to crew and vessel and has become an important tool for the fulfilment of ISM requirements of our clients.

Full Management

Our Partner, Company Marlow Shipmanagment Deutschland is situated in our premises and offers Full management services.

The company currently manages a growing number of vessels which currently consist mainly of container feeder ships ranging in size from 500 to 1200 TEU. Additionally to the existing tonnage and various container newbuildings expected from Chinese yards in the coming years, technical management contracts for a number of tanker vessels ranging in size from 6,500 to 15,000 tons deadweight have been secured.

MSD works by the same quality management systems as the Cyprus head office and, as is the case in Limassol, a mixture of nautical and technical ex seafaring staff ensures that the management and technical supervision of the ships is taken care of in a safe, economical and practical manner.

In order to ensure adherence to the high quality regulations of the tanker industry a team of professionals from the “wet” sector has been put together. Ex Chief Engineers, class surveyors and tanker operators have worked hard to bring the operations even further up to comply with the high standards proposed by the Tanker Management Self Assessment (TMSA) Code. The quality management system has been audited by Det Norske Veritas and has been found to comply with the high standards of TMSA.

Marlow Ship Management Deutschland GmbH & Co.KG offers the technical and operational management of ships strictly as a third party service and currently only in combination with crew management by Marlow Navigation and Marcrew Schiffahrts GmbH.

Training & Safety

We share our clients' concerns about the future supply of qualified officers. In a joint initiative with our clients we are facing up to the challenge. The clients' voluntary contributions to the Marlow Navigation training fund create the financial basis of the training activities which feed our career development system. The objective is to satisfy the demand for qualified officers from within the company's competence management system.

The training activities funded by our company's clients include:

Cadet training programs on board the clients' vessels
Upgrading training in the company's training centers in Manila and Odessa
Upgrading training in the company's manning agencies
Upgrading training through external training providers

Cadet training programmes on board the clients' vessels

Marcrew, Marlow Navigation and its clients sponsor cadets on board the vessels. The cadets are recruited and selected from maritime colleges and universities. Pre-joining training and close supervision of progress on board support the company's controlled accelerated promotion program. The company and its clients are active in the creation of additional positions for junior officers and operational level officers to accommodate career advancement.

Upgrading training in the company's training centres in Manila and Odessa

In our main recruiting locations, Manila and Odessa, we have established our own training centers that work in close cooperation with the company’s recruiting office. In Odessa the centre is fitted out with lecture rooms, computer labs and training kitchens. We focus on selection training, trade tests, pre-joining training and general upgrading training in order to satisfy general and individual training needs.

Our training centre in Manila is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities to cater for the needs of our seafarers and features the latest innovations in the field of maritime training. The training facilities include a Full Mission Bridge Simulator, 8 mini-bridges, PC-based Engine Simulator, Liquid Cargo Simulator, GMDSS Simulator, 4 Crane Simulators, a heavy lift cargo handling simulator, Physics and Chemistry laboratory, Electrical and Electronics laboratory, Pneumatic and Hydraulic laboratory, Refrigeration laboratory, UNITOR Gas and Electric Welding shop, Lathe Machine shop, workstations for Computer-Based Training (CBT), classrooms equipped with wide screen LCD monitors, with a fully equipped kitchen and dining area.

An air-conditioned dormitory currently accommodates cadets and trainees from the provinces during their training. It has more than 300 beds, recreational area, internet connection and common laundry area. Due to the high demand of our first dormitory, we have increased the capacity with our new Dormitory no. 2 what has been operational since February 2013 enabling a further 300 beds. Therefore, a total of 600 beds are available to accommodate our cadets and trainees.

Upgrading training in the company's manning agencies

Our manning agents address the general training needs and any individual training needs of the seafarers. The agents are equipped with computer labs and training material for computer-based training (CBT) to keep the seafarers updated about and familiar with the latest training requirements.

Upgrading training through external training providers

Our manning agents maintain close contact with external local training providers and colleges. In order to satisfy any identified training needs of seafarers that cannot be met in-house, courses are arranged and coordinated with local training providers. This includes nautical and technical subjects as well as practical subjects like welding and crane driving.

Port Agency

Marcrew Schiffahrts GmbH is port agent representative for the main office Marlow Navigation Company Limited of Limassol/Cyprus.

Every day more than 15 vessels in management of Marlow and Marcrew are entering the ports of Germany. All crew related arrangements for these vessels, such as crew changes, visa applications, doctor visits, medical examinations, crew inspections/evaluations are carried out by our in house agency department.

These inter company services (which are available in most major ports in the world) provides us information to follow up the performance of the crew, enables us to respond directly in situations of importance for the operation of the vessel, ensures a close contact between us and the seamen and gives advantages in terms of time and financial aspects for Marcrew and it’s clients.