46 U.S.C. § 12301
Section 12301 · Numbering vessels
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case United States v. Behety (1994)
Most recently applied in 936 F. Supp. 2d 818 - United States v. Transocean Deepwater Drilling Inc. (March 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.
(a) An undocumented vessel equipped with propulsion machinery of any kind shall have a number issued by the proper issuing authority in the State in which the vessel principally is operated.
(b) The Secretary may require an undocumented barge of more than 100 gross tons operating on the navigable waters of the United States to be numbered.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Section 12301 requires that undocumented vessels that are propelled by machinery be issued an identification number by the proper issuing authority in the State in which the vessel is primarily operated.
Amendments
2018—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 115–282 substituted "may" for "shall" and inserted "of" after "barge".
1992—Pub. L. 102–587 designated existing provisions as subsec. (a) and added subsec. (b).