One of the conditions for a ship to be able to make a voyage is to issue a sailing approval letter. This is done to check the seaworthiness of a ship in carrying out a voyage. The method used is to combine normative legal research and empirical legal research, which is intended to be a procedure used to solve research problems by examining secondary data first and then continuing by conducting research on primary data in the field1. Secondary data is obtained by studying and reviewing library materials in the form of legal materials, both primary legal materials, secondary legal materials, and tertiary legal materials. Primary data is direct data obtained from data sources in the field and obtained by using observations and interviews presented descriptively. The results of this study are that the issuance of sailing approval letters is not in accordance with the mechanism expected by the law due to the lack of employees and also the low understanding of employees about the duties and functions so that quality, ability and expertise are still needed to be improved through training and education.