Maggie Wu (吳詩敏)[1] Lin Tzu-Ching (林子靖)[2]
The documentary and personnel requirements of the Shipping Act and the Seafarer Act all presuppose a master, crew or helmsman on board. This part sets out those requirements, explains why an unmanned vessel can as a matter of concept have no crew list and no helmsman who can undergo a medical examination, and describes how the maritime authority has used administrative guidance to close that gap by requiring the remote operator to hold an existing vessel licence and a certificate of medical examination, for the reference of the unmanned vehicle industry.
Documentary and personnel requirements under the Shipping Act and the Seafarer Act
(1) Documentary and equipment requirements premised on people on board
The documentary and personnel requirements of the Shipping Act (船舶法) and the Seafarer Act (船員法) are set out in Table 1.[3]
Table 1 Documentary and personnel requirements under the Shipping Act and the Seafarer Act
| Category | Documents required | Where people on board are presupposed |
| Ships other than yachts and small ships | Certificate of nationality, certificate of survey, tonnage certificate and nine further items, twelve in all (Article 11, paragraph 2 of the Shipping Act) | Item 4, the minimum safe manning certificate, and item 5, the crew list, are documents an unmanned vessel cannot have |
| Small ships | Small ship licence (Article 11, paragraph 1 of the Shipping Act) | Under Article 75-2 of the Seafarer Act, the driver of a yacht or powered small ship must pass a medical examination and hold a driving licence; an unmanned vessel has no driver who can be examined |
| Yachts | Yacht certificate (Article 11, paragraph 1 of the Shipping Act) | As above |
| Ships required by law to carry an automatic identification system | Under Article 8-1, paragraph 1 of the Shipping Act, ROC ships required by the Act to install the system, and non-ROC ships required to install it under the SOLAS Convention within the waters inside the outer limit of the ROC territorial sea or in waters prohibited to the Taiwan area, must keep the equipment in proper working order while navigating or at anchor and transmit correct identification information; this does not apply to public vessels engaged in law enforcement at sea, or where switching the system on would risk the safety of the ship | Where the equipment fails, the operator must “report to the maritime authority immediately”, complete rectification within the period set by that authority or report the ship’s position at the prescribed intervals (paragraph 2) — which likewise presupposes people on board |
As Table 1 shows, each of these provisions presupposes a master, crew or driver on board. An unmanned vessel can as a matter of concept have no crew list, and no driver who can undergo a medical examination.
It should be added that the Maritime and Port Bureau, MOTC has issued separate administrative guidance for unmanned vehicles. The Safety Management Guidelines for Unmanned Surface and Underwater Vehicles in Designated Test Waters set common requirements for the test phase as to vehicle safety, information security, personnel qualifications, the test plan and emergency response and rescue, and collect the waters available for testing; the General Safety Management Guidelines for Unmanned Surface and Underwater Vehicles establish a management framework for the operational phase covering vehicle registration, survey and certification, remote operator training and certification, operational reporting and incident handling.[4]
As regards the documentary and personnel requirements premised on people on board, both sets of guidance proceed by requiring the remote operator to hold an existing vessel licence. Under Chapter 4 of the Designated Test Waters Guidelines, an operator must hold one of a powered small ship or yacht driving licence, a seafarer’s service book (deck department) or a fishing vessel crew book (deck department), together with a training certificate issued by the manufacturer. Under the General Guidelines, remote operators are divided into mission commanders, remote navigators and remote engineers; they must be at least 18 years old, hold ROC nationality or a foreign professional work permit, and hold an ROC certificate of competency as master class 3 or above, a yacht driving licence or a powered small ship driving licence (an applicant for underwater vehicle remote operator training is exempt from that requirement). They must also complete the training, pass the written and practical examinations and submit a certificate of medical examination when applying to the maritime authority for an operator certificate; the certificate is valid for three years and, on renewal, a medical certificate issued within the preceding two years must also be submitted. The General Guidelines further prescribe minimum safe manning of remote operators by class of vehicle and by operating waters. The documentary and personnel requirements of the Shipping Act, including the medical examination, are therefore being met for the time being by administrative guidance that transfers them to the remote operator. The Shipping Act itself has not been amended.
In addition, an unmanned surface vehicle must obtain a Maritime Mobile Service Identity (MMSI) allocated by the maritime authority, install an automatic identification system (AIS) shipborne station and keep that equipment in proper working order throughout operation. A vehicle tested in designated test waters must also switch on its AIS or other equipment capable of identifying the vehicle, and maintain communication with the body managing the test waters by VHF Channel 16 or other means. The identification and reporting obligations laid down in Article 8-1 of the Shipping Act thus have their counterpart for unmanned vehicles in the form of administrative guidance.
(2) Defence use and civil use
Naval vessels of military establishment are outside the Shipping Act under Article 4, subparagraph 1, so unmanned boats procured by the Ministry of National Defense have a clear position. Civil commercial unmanned vessels used for hydrographic survey, port inspection or underwater exploration, by contrast, fall into a grey area of definition: to argue that they are not ships may conflict with the view taken by the competent authority, while to argue that they are ships leaves the documentary requirements premised on personnel impossible to satisfy.
Conclusion
The documentary and personnel requirements laid down in the Shipping Act and the Seafarer Act all presuppose people on board, and an unmanned vessel cannot as a matter of concept satisfy them. The maritime authority is at present using administrative guidance to transfer the driving qualification, the medical examination and the identification and reporting obligations to the remote operator and to the vehicle itself. The Shipping Act has not been amended, however, and what an operator obtains is still not the status of a ship in law.
(The next part of this series asks: how have the courts determined what a “ship” is in ship-collision cases? And what are the differences between the thresholds in Article 3, subparagraph 1 of the Shipping Act, Article 1 of the Maritime Act and the collision chapter?)
[1] Maggie Wu (吳詩敏) is the Managing Partner of Stellex Law Firm (有澤法律事務所). LL.M., Soochow University; LL.M., Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.
[2] Lin Tzu-Ching (林子靖) is the Managing Partner of Pan & Lin, Attorneys-at-Law (則誠法律事務所). LL.M., Graduate Institute of Law and Interdisciplinary Studies, National Chengchi University; LL.M. in Environmental and Energy Law, Georgetown University Law Center.
[3] Article 8-1 of the Shipping Act was added on 5 January 2026 by Presidential Order Hua-Zong-Yi-Yi No. 11400135071.
[4] Safety Management Guidelines for Unmanned Surface and Underwater Vehicles in Designated Test Waters, issued by the Maritime and Port Bureau, MOTC, by Letter Hang-Bo-Zi No. 1141711673 of 30 December 2025 and amended by Letter Hang-Bo-Zi No. 1151710667 of 14 July 2026; General Safety Management Guidelines for Unmanned Surface and Underwater Vehicles, issued by the same Bureau by Letter Hang-Bo-Zi No. 1151710748 of 24 July 2026. Both are published in the “Unmanned Vehicles Section” of the Bureau’s website (accessed 2 November 2026). Both are administrative guidance, not regulations, and carry no penalty provisions; Chapter 6 of the General Guidelines further provides that the approval documents, use certificates and remote operator certificates issued under them are, “after a dedicated statute or related legislation takes effect”, to be replaced, extended or continued in use under a conversion mechanism to be announced by the maritime authority.