46 U.S.C. § 10302
Section 10302 · Shipping articles agreements
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 10 court decisions — leading case Harper v. United States Seafoods LP (2002)
Most recently applied in Kurtz v. Commissioner (July 2009)
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.
(a) The owner, charterer, managing operator, master, or individual in charge shall make a shipping agreement in writing with each seaman before the seaman commences employment.
(b) The agreement shall contain the following:
(1) the nature, and, as far as practicable, the duration of the intended voyage, and the port or country in which the voyage is to end.
(2) the number and description of the crew and the capacity in which each seaman is to be engaged.
(3) the time at which each seaman is to be on board to begin work.
(4) the amount of wages each seaman is to receive.
(5) regulations about conduct on board, and information on fines, short allowance of provisions, and other punishment for misconduct provided by law.
(6) a scale of the provisions that are to be provided each seaman.
(7) any stipulation in reference to advances and allotments of wages.
(8) other matters not contrary to law.
(c) Each shipping agreement must be signed by the master or individual in charge or a representative of the owner, charterer, or managing operator, and by each seaman employed.
(d) The owner, charterer, managing operator, master, or individual in charge shall maintain the shipping agreement and make the shipping agreement available to the seaman.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Section 10302 requires the master to make a shipping agreement with each crew member and lists the information that must be included in the agreement.
Amendments
1993—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 103–206, §401(1), amended subsec. (a) generally. Prior to amendment, subsec. (a) read as follows: “Before proceeding on a voyage, the master of a vessel to which this chapter applies shall make a shipping articles agreement in writing with each seaman in the crew.”
Subsecs. (c), (d). Pub. L. 103–206, §401(2), added subsecs. (c) and (d).