Crew Management

This article has a strategy guide.

All information on mechanics and strategy will be on this page.

The crew management interface.

Crew management is an interface accessible from the Crew Registrar on The Pandemonium or Port Roberts, where players can distribute tasks whilst Sailing. The interface can alternatively be accessed at the starting points of Barracuda Trials if the boat already has a crew. Once a crew member is recruited, they can be assigned or cleared from the crew without any restrictions.

Different crew members have different levels of Helmsmanship (H), Privateering (P), and Deckhandiness (D) skills. For example, Jobless Jim is unlocked at level 40 Sailing and has H2-P1-D3, while Adventurer Ada is unlocked at level 55 and has H3-P2-D1. Players should choose their crew depending on which facility slots they are using, taking advantage of crew members' specialties.

A raft can support 0 crew members, a skiff can support 2, and a sloop can support 5. If more crew members are assigned than a boat can hold, they are picked in order from the crew management interface.

Sailing levels can be boosted to recruit crew members, but not to unlock additional crew slots.

Crewmates

Players must first talk to the crewmate on land before assigning them to a role on a raft or boat. Then, players must talk to the Crew Registrar to assign the unlocked crewmate to an open slot in their raft or boat. It does not cost anything to unlock or employ a crewmate.

Below shows a table of each crewmate's attributes:

Crewmate	Level	Location	Helmsmanship	Privateering	Deckhandiness	Courier Crates	Other requirements
Jobless Jim	40	Port Sarim	2	1	3	2	None
Ex-Captain Siad	50 [b]	Desert Mining Camp	3	2	3	2	The Tourist Trap
Adventurer Ada	55 [b]	The Pandemonium	3	2	1	1	None
Cabin Boy Jenkins	60 [b]	Crandor	2	2	4	2	Dragon Slayer I Ghostspeak amulet or Morytania legs 2 (or higher)
Oarswoman Olga	65 [b]	Burgh de Rott	2	4	2	1	In Aid of the Myreque
Jittery Jim	70 [b]	Port Khazard	1	4	1	1	None
Bosun Zarah	80 [b]	Etceteria	3	3	2	1	Royal Trouble Completion of the Hard Fremennik Diary
Jolly Jim	85 [b]	Brimhaven	1	1	4	2	None
Spotter Virginia	90 [b]	Ruins of Unkah	4	2	2	1	100 Tempoross subdues
Sailor Jakob	95 [b]	Catherby	4	1	1	1	None

As the player's Sailing level increases, they will be able to assign tasks to more crewmates at once.

Level	Crew size
40	1
55	2
70	3
85	4
95	5

Seafaring

The Sailing Options tab can show players an overview of their crew's stats and active assignments.

Helmsmanship

Helmsmanship allows crewmates to operate the helm and trim the sails, allowing the player to operate another facility while still controlling ship movement. Players will still need to manually click to aim the ship towards their preferred heading, as well as click on the icons in the sailing tab to manage speed. Any crewmate can pilot a skiff and level 3 helmsmanship is required to pilot a sloop. Crewmates assigned to navigation will automatically trim the sails, granting a percentage of full trimming experience.

Helmsmanship	Trimming experience
1	40%
2	50%
3	60%
4	70%

Privateering

Privateering controls crewmate cannon usage, with higher privateering levels allowing operation of better cannons and higher max hits. If a player does not have the required level to operate the cannon, crewmates will be unable to operate it as well even if they have the required privateering level.

Privateering	Facility
1	Bronze cannon
2	Iron cannon Steel cannon
3	Mithril cannon Adamant cannon
4	Rune cannon Dragon cannon

Cannons operated by crewmates use the player's visible Sailing level to calculate their max hit. The max hit (+1 if using a keg of perildance bitter) is then multiplied by a factor of $(\text{Privateering + 13})/20$ and rounded down. Cannons operated by the player instead use their own Ranged level. In both cases, visible skill boosts or drains can affect the max hit. Crewmates also have a greater restriction on what angle they can fire cannons at and can only shoot at enemies more directly in front of the cannon barrel.

Deckhandiness

Deckhandiness affects the ship's manual tasks, such as salvaging with a salvaging hook and fishing with trawling net. Crewmates using a salvaging hook provide reduced experience rates; efficiency scales with Deckhandiness, starting at 10% XP (Level 1) and rising to 40% XP (Level 4). Crewmates will also have a higher success rate for obtaining salvage with a higher deckhandiness. It also changes the number of crates a crewmate can carry during a courier task, with levels 1 and 2 allowing one crate per crewmate, and level 3 and 4 allowing two crates. Deckhandiness also affects how much your boat will heal when the crewmate repairs your boat with a repair kit, with levels of 2 or more providing a bonus of $deckhandiness-1$ healing, scaling with the level.

Deckhandiness	Best salvaging hook	Salvaging experience	Best trawling net	Crates	Bonus repair kit healing
1	Steel salvaging hook	10%	Rope trawling net	1	0
2	Adamant salvaging hook	20%	Linen trawling net	1	0-1
3	Rune salvaging hook	30%	Hemp trawling net	2	0-2
4	Dragon salvaging hook	40%	Cotton trawling net	2	0-3

Other features

While the player is not on a ship, the crewmate in slot 1 will stand on the pier to assist the player in moving (non-port task) cargo. If you use the "Bank Cargo" option on a crewmate, the player can have all items in their active ship's cargo hold moved to their bank. If the player wishes to move cargo from a ship other than the active one, they can select other boats through dialogue with the crewmate after inquiring about the contents of the cargo hold. Boats must be docked at the same port where the player is located to move cargo to the bank.

Changes

Date	Changes
5 December 2025 (Update)	Hotfix The experience modifier for crewmate salvaging was reduced: Level 4 Deckhandiness modifier reduced from 70% to 40% Level 3 Deckhandiness modifier reduced from 60% to 30%
3 December 2025 (Update)	Crewmates will now remember their assigned task after the player logs out or hops worlds.