46 U.S.C. § 10502
Section 10502 · Shipping articles agreements
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 8 court decisions — leading case Harper v. United States Seafoods LP (2002)
Most recently applied in Lagergren v. United States (October 2015)
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 include the date and hour on which the seaman must be on board to begin the voyage.
(c) The agreement may not contain a provision on the allotment of wages or a scale of provisions.
(d) 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.
(e) The owner, charterer, managing operator, master, or individual in charge shall maintain the shipping agreement and make the shipping agreement available to the seaman.
(f) The Secretary shall prescribe regulations requiring shipping companies to maintain records of seamen on matters of engagement, discharge, and service. The shipping companies shall make these records available to the seaman and the Coast Guard on request.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Section 10502 requires the master on a vessel engaged on a coastwise voyage to sign a shipping agreement with each member of the crew and lists provisions which must be and provisions which may not be included in the agreement.
Amendments
1993—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 103–206, §413(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 on board, declaring the nature of the voyage or the period of time for which the seaman is engaged.”
Subsecs. (d) to (f). Pub. L. 103–206, §413(2), added subsecs. (d) to (f).