Every action on MBN is attributable to a specific role on a specific organization. This lesson walks the roles a vessel organization assigns at registration: what each is responsible for, what each does today on the live platform, and what each gains as MBN's remaining milestones arrive.
Maritime contracting has historically run on verbal approvals and informal authority. "The captain said it was fine." "The owner agreed in a phone call." When the contract finishes, or worse, when it doesn't, there's no record of who authorized what, under what authority, at what point. MBN replaces that pattern with attributable authority: every action, publishing a tender, approving a scope, awarding a bid, accepting commissioning, is tied to a specific role on a specific organization, with a timestamp and an audit trail.
That structure is what makes the record defensible when it matters. When an invoice arrives, you can trace it back to the role that approved each step. When a dispute opens, the platform names who acted and under what authority. That isn't bureaucracy, it's what turns "I think we agreed" into "Captain X approved this on date Y under explicit tender authority."
A vessel organization assigns these roles during registration. Admin is required (exactly one, it's the owner's role). Captain and Chief Engineer are required (one or more each). Vessel Manager and Co-Admin are optional. For tenders, authority follows a clear order: Admin, then Captain, then Chief Engineer.
Exactly one Admin per vessel organization. Holds the legal representation responsibility and manages the organization's settings, roles, and submitter authority on MBN.
Completes the organization's profile, assigns the rest of the team to their roles, and submits the organization for MBN officer review. Receives MBN officer feedback if changes are requested.
One or more Captains per vessel organization. Holds operational authority tied to vessel operation, scheduling, access, safety, and the work that touches the vessel's day-to-day.
Registered in role. Receives organization notifications. Confirms operational readiness once the organization is approved and steps into the live dashboard.
One or more Chief Engineers per vessel organization. Holds technical authority over engineering scope: the discipline that publishes most of the vessel's tenders and evaluates bids on technical merits.
Registered in role. Receives organization notifications. Confirms technical readiness once the organization is approved and steps into the live dashboard.
Zero or more Vessel Managers per vessel organization. A coordination and oversight seat: typically the person who liaises with an owner's representative or a management company. In v1 it is deliberately a read-and-participate role: it does not create or publish tenders, edit vessel particulars, create library items, or sign contracts. Assign one only if your operating structure calls for it.
Registered in role if assigned. Receives organization notifications.
An organization-management layer you grant on top of someone's functional role: for example, a Captain who also runs the org's admin. Co-Admin isn't a job of its own; it adds admin power to whoever holds it. Optional, and you can have more than one.
Registered in role if assigned. Manages the organization alongside the Admin.
Three rules govern how authority works inside every MBN organization, vessel organizations included. First: no shared credentials. Each role is held by a named person, not "the bridge" or "the office." Second: no implied permissions. A role does what it's explicitly authorized to do, nothing inherited, nothing assumed. Third: no overrides without record. If an action gets escalated past its normal authority, the escalation itself is logged with who, when, and why.
The result is an organization where the audit trail isn't a separate compliance artifact, it is the operational record. When you trace an invoice back to the role that approved each step, you're not reading reconstructed history. You're reading what actually happened, in the order it happened, under the authority it happened.
Next, build your Equipment and Parts libraries, then create your first tender. Request free access, assign the roles you just read about, get approved by an MBN officer, and the dashboard is live for you immediately.