33 U.S.C. § 1201
Section 1201 · Statement of purpose
This is the Vessel Bridge-to-Bridge Radiotelephone Act
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case 409 F. Supp. 909 - GETTY OIL CO.(EASTERN OPERATIONS), INC. v. SS Ponce De Leon (1976)
Most recently applied in Makin v. Empresa Lineas Maritimas Argentinas (March 1986)
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.
It is the purpose of this chapter to provide a positive means whereby the operators of approaching vessels can communicate their intentions to one another through voice radio, located convenient to the operator's navigation station. To effectively accomplish this, there is need for a specific frequency or frequencies dedicated to the exchange of navigational information, on navigable waters of the United States.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Short Title
Section 1 of Pub. L. 92–63 provided: “That this Act [enacting this chapter] may be cited as the ‘Vessel Bridge-to-Bridge Radiotelephone Act’.”
Effective Date
Section 10 of Pub. L. 92–63 provided that: “This Act [enacting this chapter] shall become effective May 1, 1971, or six months after the promulgation of regulations which would implement its provisions, whichever is later.” See 47 CFR 83.701 et seq.