Crewing desk
Maingate Shipping manages crew matters for owners, managers and operators whose vessels call at Kenyan ports or whose seafarers live in East Africa. The desk sits in Mombasa, a short drive from Kilindini Harbour and Moi International Airport, and handles the whole cycle: joining and leaving crew, documentation, medicals, travel, allotments and the welfare questions that come up between voyages.
Crew management is not a side line to port agency here. A crew change that goes wrong costs a vessel a day at anchor, an off-hire dispute or a seafarer stranded in a hotel, and the cost lands on the principal. We plan each movement against the vessel's schedule, the airline timetable and the port's own rules, and we confirm every step in writing before the seafarer travels.
The desk arranges sign-on and sign-off at Mombasa and Lamu, immigration formalities and shore passes, meet-and-greet at the airport, hotel accommodation when flights and vessels do not line up, launch or gangway transfers, pre-employment and periodic medicals at approved clinics, and the return of documents to the vessel. For owners who employ Kenyan seafarers, the same desk handles contracts, allotments, leave planning and the paperwork that flag states and unions expect to see.
Seafarer employment agreements, medical certificates, STCW certificates and flag endorsements each expire on their own date. We keep a register for the crews we manage and start renewals early enough that no seafarer joins with a certificate about to lapse. Where a certificate needs a flag endorsement or a training refresher in Kenya, we book it and follow it through.
Allotment queries, a family emergency at home, a seafarer who needs a doctor between voyages, a dispute over leave pay: these are the matters that reach the crewing desk at odd hours. We handle them the way a good master would, with the seafarer treated properly and the owner told what was done and what it cost.
Maingate Shipping Limited, Mombasa: ship agents at Kenyan ports since 2020, crew managers and recruiters of Kenyan seafarers, ship brokers for the East African trades, and the coordinating desk for port calls across Africa. The office at Express Building on Moi Avenue is a short drive from Kilindini Harbour and Moi International Airport, which is why crew, spares and cash reach vessels at Mombasa without a wasted hour.
The company works for owners, charterers, managers, traders, lines, clubs and fleets, and puts its terms, its DAs and its reports in writing.
Yes. Kenyan seafarers sail worldwide, and the desk manages their contracts, documents, travel and welfare wherever the vessel trades. Joining and leaving are arranged through the port agent at the vessel's port, under our instruction.
Yes. We take a full handover of crew files, certificates and contract dates, review them for gaps and give the owner a written status of every seafarer before we take responsibility.
By a monthly fee per seafarer or per vessel, agreed in writing, with disbursements such as flights, hotels and medicals passed through at cost with the supporting invoices.
One instruction, one account, one contact for the master and one for the principal.
Related desks on the same instruction line.
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Maingate Shipping Limited · Express Building, Moi Avenue, Mombasa, Kenya · ops@maingateshipping.com · +254 784 622 091