This article walks you through your first muster drill: from activating it on the iPad, to marking crew as accounted for, to completing the session and reviewing it afterwards. Before you start, make sure you've added at least a few crew members. If you haven't, see adding your first crew members first.
Before you start: configure a scenario
The Muster App supports multiple emergency scenarios: Fire, Abandon Ship, Man Overboard, Security, anything you train for. Each scenario has its own muster list, station assignments, and procedures, all configured once in the admin panel.
For your first drill, use the default Fire scenario that's pre-configured when you sign up. Every crew member you've added is automatically assigned to a default muster station, so you don't need to spend time on configuration just to try the feature.
Once you're comfortable with the basics, head to Muster Config in the admin panel to create custom scenarios with specific stations and duties for each crew member. That's covered in building emergency scenarios.
1. Activate the muster from the iPad
On the iPad, tap the Muster Control button in the bottom navigation bar. It's the one with the orange/red icon. This opens the Muster Control screen.
To activate, drag the slider across. The slider is deliberately physical: you can't accidentally trigger a muster with a casual tap.
The slider opens a Drill type panel showing your vessel's configured emergencies as buttons. Tap one and the session starts, tagged with that scenario. You don't log it separately afterwards. Underneath them sits a single button reading NOT A DRILL, for when this is real. That one starts the session immediately without asking you to categorise anything, which is the right behaviour when something is actually happening.
The panel opens instantly whether or not the iPad has a connection. If the scenario list hasn't loaded yet it fills in as it arrives, and NOT A DRILL works either way.
The moment the session starts, three things happen:
- Every other iPad on the vessel displays an emergency alert screen so crew know a muster is active
- A push notification fires to every crew member's Muster Mate companion app (if installed)
- If your vessel has audio recording enabled in the admin panel, the iPad starts recording audio for the duration of the muster
2. Mark crew as accounted for
The muster list shows every crew member grouped by department, in the same order as your hard-copy muster list. Each row has the crew member's name, photo, rank, and a status pill on the right.
As crew arrive at their station, mark them off by tapping their row. The pill changes from grey ("missing") to green ("mustered") and the row sinks down the list. The header at the top of the screen shows a running count: 17 / 24 mustered.
If two iPads are running the same muster (for example, the bridge iPad and the engine room iPad), both update in real time. When someone gets marked off on one iPad, every other iPad shows the change within a couple of seconds. If WiFi drops, each iPad keeps its local state and syncs as soon as the connection is back.
3. Log events as they happen
While the muster is active, you can record events as they happen using the Log Event button in the muster action bar. This captures a timestamped record of what happened during the drill, which is invaluable when you review the session later.
There are two ways to log an event:
- Quick actions: up to six customisable buttons configured by your vessel admin under Muster Sessions > Settings > Quick Actions (defaults include "All Mustered", "Coast guard notified", "Anchor deployed", "All hands on deck", "Emergency position confirmed"). Tap one and it's logged instantly with a timestamp.
- Custom note: type a free-text note (up to 280 characters) in the textarea below the quick actions for anything that doesn't fit a preset. Tap Save note to log it.
To review everything logged during the session, tap the Session Log pill that appears in the sticky bar once at least one event has been recorded. A drawer slides in from the right showing the full event timeline, colour-coded by type (calls, quick actions, notes).
Events are also logged automatically for VoIP calls: if you tap an emergency contact (DPA, fire department, medical) during a muster, the call's start time, end time, contact, and duration are recorded for you.
4. Place an emergency call (optional)
The muster screen shows three emergency contact cards along the bottom: Fire, DPA, and Medical. These are configured by your admin in Muster Sessions → Settings in the admin panel.
Tap any of these cards to place a VoIP call to that contact directly from the iPad over WiFi. The call goes through the iPad's loud speaker so the whole bridge team can hear, and both sides of the conversation are recorded into the muster session's audio file. Tap the card again to hang up.
The call needs a connection. If the iPad is offline the app hands the number to iOS, but understand what that can and cannot do: an iPad cannot place a voice call over cellular. iPad cellular is data only, and there is no Phone app on iPadOS. A cellular plan does not buy you a fallback here. iOS may offer to dial through FaceTime or a paired iPhone, and both of those need a connection too.
So treat the VHF, the satellite phone and the bridge telephone as the fallback, not the iPad. Keep the same three numbers on a card on the bridge. More on emergency contacts and VoIP
5. Complete the muster
Once everyone is accounted for (or you've decided to end the drill), tap Complete in the muster action bar at the top. The iPad asks you to confirm (tap yes) and the muster session ends.
Completion does several things:
- Locks the muster list and prevents further edits
- Stops audio recording (if enabled) and saves the file alongside the session
- Saves all logged events with their timestamps
- Sends an alert to other iPads that the muster is over
- Returns each iPad to its normal crew board view
6. Review the session in the admin panel
Open the admin panel at admin.themusterapp.com and click Muster Sessions in the sidebar. You'll see your completed drill at the top of the list with the date, time, scenario, and a count of how many crew were mustered vs missing.
Click into the session to see the full detail panel: every crew member with their final status, every logged event in chronological order, the audio recording (if any), and any VoIP calls that were placed. This is your audit trail for ISM compliance and post-drill debrief.
You can add tags to the session from this screen to categorise it (e.g. "fire drill", "pre-charter"). The session record is permanent: it can't be deleted by mistake.
That's a complete drill
That's the end-to-end flow for a basic muster drill. As you get more comfortable, the next things to explore are:
- Custom scenarios: set up Fire, Abandon Ship, Man Overboard, Security, and any other scenario your vessel trains for, each with different muster stations
- Per-crew duties: assign specific duties to specific crew members for each scenario (e.g. "Engineer 1: shut off fuel valves", "Stewardess 2: account for guests in saloon")
- Hard-copy PDF: export your full muster list as a printable PDF for posting on the bridge or stowing in the safety folder
- Re-muster: for longer drills with multiple sweeps, you can re-muster within the same session to track who was found between iterations
All of these are covered in more depth in the Muster Drills section.