33 U.S.C. § 2013
Section 2013 · Overtaking (Rule 13)
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 10 court decisions — leading case Delta Queen Steamboat Co. v. District 2 Marine Engineers Beneficial Ass'n (1989)
Most recently applied in Youngberg v. McKeough (August 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.
Notwithstanding anything contained in Rules 4 through 18, any vessel overtaking any other shall keep out of the way of the vessel being overtaken.
A vessel shall be deemed to be overtaking when coming up with another vessel from a direction more than 22.5 degrees abaft her beam; that is, in such a position with reference to the vessel she is overtaking, that at night she would be able to see only the sternlight of that vessel but neither of her sidelights.
When a vessel is in any doubt as to whether she is overtaking another, she shall assume that this is the case and act accordingly.
Any subsequent alteration of the bearing between the two vessels shall not make the overtaking vessel a crossing vessel within the meaning of these Rules or relieve her of the duty of keeping clear of the overtaken vessel until she is finally past and clear.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
Rules 4 through 18, referred to in par. (a), are classified to sections 2004 through 2018 of this title.
These Rules, referred to in par. (d), are the Inland Navigational Rules which are classified to this subchapter.
Codification
Section was enacted as part of section 2 of Pub. L. 96–591 which enacted the Inland Navigational Rules which comprise this subchapter.