18 U.S.C. § 1656
Section 1656 · Conversion or surrender of vessel
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case United States v. Crews (1983)
Most recently applied in 303 F. App'x 327 - United States v. Geiger (December 2008)
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.
Whoever, being a captain or other officer or mariner of a vessel upon the high seas or on any other waters within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States, piratically or feloniously runs away with such vessel, or with any goods or merchandise thereof, to the value of $50 or over; or
Whoever yields up such vessel voluntarily to any pirate—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §497 (Mar. 4, 1909, ch. 321, §306, 35 Stat. 1148).
Minor changes were made in phraseology.
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $10,000” in last par.