Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886

Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886

Long title	An Act to abolish certain fees for official services to American vessels, and to amend the laws relating to shipping commissioners, seamen, and owners of vessels, and for other purposes.
Enacted by	the 49th United States Congress
Effective	June 19, 1886
Citations
Public law	Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 49–421
Statutes at Large	24 Stat. 79, Chap. 421
Codification
Titles amended	46 U.S.C.: Shipping
U.S.C. sections created	46 U.S.C. § 55103
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 10703 by Nelson Dingley Jr. (R-ME) Signed into law by President Grover Cleveland on June 19, 1886

The Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886, sometimes abbreviated to PVSA, Passenger Services Act, or PSA, is a protectionist piece of United States legislation which came into force in 1886 relating to cabotage. Essentially, it says:^{[citation needed]}

No foreign vessels shall transport passengers between ports or places in the United States, either directly or by way of a foreign port, under a penalty of $200 for each passenger so transported and landed.

As a result, all vessels that have engaged in the coastwise trade have been required to be coastwise-qualified (i.e., U.S.-built, owned, and documented). Under the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886 (46 USC § 55103), non-coastwise-qualified vessels cannot transport passengers directly between U.S. ports. Generally, a passenger is any person carried on a vessel who is not directly and substantially connected with the operation of such vessel, its navigation, ownership, or business. The precise definition of what constitutes a U.S. port ("coastwise point") includes artificial islands and similar structures, as well as to mobile oil drilling rigs, drilling platforms, and other devices attached to the seabed of the Outer Continental Shelf for the purpose of resource exploration operations, and the anchored warehouse vessels that supply drilling platforms.^[1]

The handful of U.S.-flagged cruise ships in operation are registered in the U.S. to permit cruises between the Hawaiian Islands, or from the continental U.S. to Hawaii.

The Passenger Vessel Services Act, however,

• does not prohibit foreign-flagged ships departing from and returning to the same U.S. port, provided the ship visits any foreign port;
• does not prohibit foreign-flagged ships departing from a U.S. port, visiting a distant foreign port, and then continuing to a second U.S. port. However, in order to embark in a U.S. port and disembark in a second U.S. port, the vessel must visit a distant foreign port outside of North America (Central America, Bermuda, the Bahamas, and all of the Caribbean except Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao, count as part of North America);^[2]

In accordance with this law, cruise lines that operate foreign-flagged vessels are fined $798 for each passenger who boarded such a vessel in one U.S. port and left the vessel at another port.^[3] The cruise lines typically pass this cost onto passengers who "jump ship"; exemptions are available in the case of family emergencies etc.^[4]