46 U.S.C. § 10101
Section 10101 · Definitions
Amended 5 times on record
Applied in 26 court decisions — leading case Lewis v. Lewis & Clark Marine, Inc. (2001)
Most recently applied in 981 F. Supp. 2d 1188 - Smith v. Seaport Marine, Inc. (November 2013)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
In this part—
(1) “master” means the individual having command of a vessel.
(2) “owner” means the person to whom the vessel belongs.
(3) “seaman” means an individual (except scientific personnel, a sailing school instructor, or a sailing school student) engaged or employed in any capacity on board a vessel.
(4) “fishing vessel” includes—
(A) a fish tender vessel; or
(B) a fish processing vessel entered into service before January 1, 1988, and not more than 1,600 gross tons as measured under section 14502 of this title, or an alternate tonnage measured under section 14302 of this title as prescribed by the Secretary under section 14104 of this title or entered into service after December 31, 1987, and having not more than 16 individuals on board primarily employed in the preparation of fish or fish products.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Section 10101 defines the terms master, seaman, and owner as they apply to merchant seamen's protection and relief.
Amendments
1996—Par. (4)(B). Pub. L. 104–324 inserted “as measured under section 14502 of this title, or an alternate tonnage measured under section 14302 of this title as prescribed by the Secretary under section 14104 of this title” after “1,600 gross tons”.
1986—Pars. (1), (3). Pub. L. 99–640 struck out “owned by a citizen of the United States” after “vessel”.
1984—Par. (4). Pub. L. 98–364, as amended Pub. L. 98–557, added par. (4).