Crew Management

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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 the first and 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 Sailing Level Location Helmsmanship Privateering Deckhandiness Courier Crates Other requirements
Jobless Jim Sailing 40 Port Sarim 2 1 3 2 None
Ex-Captain Siad Sailing 50 [b] Desert Mining Camp 3 2 3 2 Quest points The Tourist Trap
Adventurer Ada Sailing 55 [b] The Pandemonium 3 2 1 1 None
Cabin Boy Jenkins Sailing 60 [b] Crandor 2 2 4 2 Quest points Dragon Slayer I

Ghostspeak amulet or Morytania legs 2 (or higher)

Oarswoman Olga Sailing 65 [b] Burgh de Rott 2 4 2 1 Quest points In Aid of the Myreque
Jittery Jim Sailing 70 [b] Port Khazard 1 4 1 1 None
Bosun Zarah Sailing 80 [b] Etceteria 3 3 2 1 Quest points Royal Trouble

Completion of the Hard Fremennik Diary

Jolly Jim Sailing 85 [b] Brimhaven 1 1 4 2 None
Spotter Virginia Sailing 90 [b] Ruins of Unkah 4 2 2 1 100 Tempoross subdues
Sailor Jakob Sailing 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.

Sailing
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.

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 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 a 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 healing, scaling with the level.

Deckhandiness Level 4 Crewmembers: Cabinboy Jenkins and Jolly Jim (85 Sailing)

Deckhandiness Level 3 Crewmembers: Jobless Jim, and Ex-Captain Siad

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. Crew mates must have deckhandiness level 2 or higher to use the "Bank Cargo" option.

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.

Source

Content from the Old School RuneScape Wiki (operated by Weird Gloop), licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

Source siteOld School RuneScape Wiki
Canonical sourceCrew Management
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