How is a navigation (bridge) watch properly handed over?

Handing over a navigational watch on the bridge is one of the most safety critical routines in ship operation, governed in detail by the STCW convention's watchkeeping requirements, because investigation after investigation into collisions, groundings and near misses has traced the root cause back to a rushed, incomplete or overly casual handover where the relieving officer accepted the watch without genuinely understanding the situation. The governing principle is straightforward but easy to erode under time pressure: the relieving officer must be personally satisfied and genuinely ready before accepting the watch, and the officer being relieved remains fully responsible for the ship until that moment of acceptance, not before.

When the relieving officer arrives on the bridge, particularly at night, they need time for their eyes to adapt to the darkness, commonly reckoned at somewhere around fifteen minutes for reasonable night vision, before that vision can be relied on for lookout duty, and this adaptation time should not be skipped just because the outgoing officer is in a hurry to leave. During the handover itself, the relieving officer must personally verify the essentials rather than passively accept a verbal summary: the ship's actual position confirmed by an independent fix, not just the position shown on a display; the course, speed and any set and drift affecting them; the intended track and any planned course alterations coming up during the watch; the current traffic situation and the movements, closest points of approach and any collision avoidance actions already being taken or planned for other vessels; the weather, visibility and sea state and how they are trending; any navigational hazards expected during the watch; the operational state of the engines, steering and navigational equipment; and any standing orders or the master's night order book entries relevant to the watch ahead.

The officer being relieved is responsible for briefing all of this clearly and for flagging anything of concern rather than glossing over a developing situation to make for an easier departure from the bridge. Critically, a handover must never take place while the ship is in the middle of an active manoeuvre, avoiding a close quarters situation, altering course around a hazard, or manoeuvring in restricted waters, since introducing a new officer's judgment mid manoeuvre is exactly when confusion and error creep in; the handover simply waits until the ship is back on a steady, settled course. Only once the relieving officer explicitly confirms they have taken over, verbally and by convention in the deck log, does responsibility formally transfer, and if anything about the situation is unclear the relieving officer is expected to ask rather than accept the watch on trust. This disciplined routine, repeated every few hours around the clock, is what maintains continuous safe lookout and situational awareness on a ship that never stops moving.