Title 54, Ports and Maritime Matters

(A) The institute shall consider at least the following criteria when determining whether or not to issue an exclusive license: (1) the degree of archaeological, anthropological, historical, paleontological, and scientific importance and public educational potential of the propos…

(A)(1) The institute may approve an exclusive license application from a commercial applicant but delay issuance of the license until the following conditions have been satisfied within a time period determined by the institute: (a) the applicant has designated and, if required, …

(A) Each license issued by the institute must contain at least the following provisions: (1) the duration of the license; (2) the boundaries of the area in which the work will be undertaken; (3) a description of the scope of work to be undertaken by the licensee and, if a data re…

For each license issued by the State Underwater Archaeologist the following provisions also apply: (1)(a) The assignment of additional personnel or any change in the personnel from that scheduled in the application to perform the work is subject to prior approval by the institute…

(A) The conditions set forth in this section for intensive survey licenses apply in addition to the terms and conditions for all licenses. (B)(1) The institute may issue an intensive survey license for up to a defined one square mile area. (2)(a) The institute may issue an intens…

(A) The conditions established in this section for data recovery licenses apply in addition to the terms and conditions for all licenses established in Sections 54-7-670 through 54-7-730. (B)(1) An applicant may not be issued more than one license at a time for a single submerged…

Upon the written request of the licensee, or if considered necessary by the institute, the institute may issue a modification to the license that can add, delete, or modify provisions contained in the license if the modification is consistent with this article. (1) The institute …

If the finder of a wreck is other than the licensed salvor (commercial applicant), the finder must receive twenty-five percent of the licensed salvor's share.

(A) A license is not required of the institute for any undertaking otherwise requiring a license under this article. (B) A license is not required of the museum for any undertaking involving paleontological property otherwise required under this article.

(A) The institute may suspend operations under a license at any time for just cause if it has reason to believe that the terms and provisions of a license or other applicable law or regulation are being violated. Within ten days of the suspension, the State Underwater Archaeologi…

(A)(1) A person who violates any of the provisions of Section 54-7-650(G), 54-7-660, or 54-7-670 is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be punished by a fine of not more than fifty dollars. If a person holds a hobby license issued under these sections, the license …

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person may excavate or salvage any sunken warship submerged in the waters of the Atlantic ocean within three miles of the South Carolina coast where there are, or it is believed that there are, human remains without the approval of t…

(A) The institute reserves the right to retain and distribute for research or educational purposes data provided to the institute under this article. All archaeological and paleontological records of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology and the South Carol…

Nothing in this article may be construed to limit or prohibit the use of privately-owned land by its owner or require the owner to obtain a license required by this article for any activity on his privately-owned land.

The institute shall: (1) establish and maintain an educational program for the training of interested members of the public in the identification, recordation, and registration of submerged archaeological historic property and certify those who have successfully completed such tr…

All license fees received by the institute pursuant to this article may be retained without regard to the fiscal year of receipt and must be used only to implement this article.

Any person who shall be convicted of harboring deserting seamen or of inveigling or procuring them to desert any service for which they have engaged or disregard any article into which they have entered shall be held guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon trial and conviction, shall b…

In case any such seamen or any boy apprenticed on board any ship or vessel shall be harbored, secreted or detained, any magistrate, upon complaint on oath made by the master of such ship, or on his behalf, may inquire into the matter and, if he shall see fit, by warrant under his…

The provisions of Sections 54-9-10 and 54-9-20 shall extend to every agreement to proceed or continue on a voyage made in this State or elsewhere by a seaman, and whether in contemplation of a voyage to be commenced in the State or elsewhere, if such agreement, at the time when a…

On the prosecution or trial of any indictment under the provisions of this chapter a copy of the articles of the ship or vessel, authenticated by the affidavit of the captain, sworn to before any notary public or magistrate of this State, shall be admissible in evidence and shall…

When any prosecution shall be commenced against any person under the provisions of this chapter providing for the punishment of harboring seamen who have deserted and it shall appear to the magistrate before whom the prosecution was commenced that the testimony of any master of a…

It shall not be lawful for any broker, shipping master or other person engaged in the business of procuring seamen for vessels, furnishing them with such seamen or making contracts for the services of such seaman to enter or attempt to go on board of any vessel lying at any port …

The master or other person having the command of any such vessel or the care, custody and control thereof may seize and arrest all persons while so offending and take them before any magistrate, to be committed or bound over to appear as in other cases of misdemeanor.

Any person who (a) shall moor any vessel of any kind whatsoever or any raft or part of a raft to any buoy, beacon or daymark placed in the waters of this State by the authority of the United States lighthouse board, (b) shall in any manner hang on with any vessel or raft or part …

It shall be unlawful for any vessel to anchor on the range-line of any range of lights established by the United States lighthouse board, unless such anchorage is unavoidable, and the master of any vessel so anchoring shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall b…

Any person having charge of any raft passing any buoy, beacon or daymark, who shall not exercise due diligence in keeping clear of it or, if unavoidably fouling it, shall not exercise due diligence in clearing such raft without dragging from its position such buoy, beacon or daym…

The cost of repairing or replacing any such buoy, beacon or daymark which may have been misplaced, damaged or destroyed by any vessel or raft whatsoever having been made fast to any such buoy, beacon or daymark shall, when it shall be legally ascertained, be a lien upon such vess…

If any person shall wilfully and maliciously destroy or in any manner hurt, damage or obstruct or shall wilfully and maliciously cause or aid, assist, counsel or advise any other person or persons to destroy or in any manner to hurt, damage, injure or obstruct any signal, monumen…

For the purpose of this chapter, a privately owned dock is defined as any dock which is constructed on or appurtenant to property on which the person constructing the dock owns a leasehold interest in or title to or has obtained permission, express or implied, from the title owne…

The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to docking facilities open to the general public or to persons utilizing privately owned docking facilities in an emergency situation, or to persons having permission, express or implied, to use such facilities from the owner thereof…

It shall be unlawful, except as provided herein, for any person to trespass upon or attach a boat or other device to any privately owned dock erected along the shores of any public or private waters within this State. Provided, however, that no person shall be convicted under thi…

This chapter shall not be construed to prevent or to interfere with the right of any person, governmental body, commission or agency, and the licensees and franchisees thereof, from regulating or controlling any activities on the waters and appurtenant lands under the jurisdictio…

Subject to Section 8501 of Title 46 of the United States Code, the South Carolina Commissioners of Pilotage for the Upper Coastal Area shall have jurisdiction over and shall regulate pilotage for the bars and harbors of South Carolina beginning at Little River, which is a boundar…

Apprentices for the Lower Coastal Area are taken only by pilots licensed under Sections 54-15-120 and 54-15-130 for the port and must be approved and certified by the South Carolina Commissioners of Pilotage for the Lower Coastal Area. They must not be under eighteen years of age…

The respective boards shall give to the applicants approved by them either a limited license or branch or a full license or branch, according to the application and discovered fitness of the applicant shall be, signed by a majority of the commissioners or by its chairman, as the …

(A) An apprentice in the Lower Coastal Area shall serve three years before being eligible to take an examination for the initial short branch license. During an apprenticeship, licensed pilots shall take an apprentice on board all types of vessels, so that the apprentice may beco…

The number of pilots shall not be less than the number established by the South Carolina Commissioners of Pilotage for the Upper and Lower Coastal Areas for the specific routes through regulations promulgated in accordance with the Administrative Procedures Act. The board shall m…

The South Carolina Commissioners of Pilotage for the Upper and Lower Coastal Areas shall promulgate regulations in accordance with the Administrative Procedures Act for the administration of pilotage within the ports of their respective areas. The regulations must include, but ar…

The South Carolina Commissioners of Pilotage for each port shall register all licensed pilots for their respective ports with the necessary data to be shown on the register as the commissioners may deem necessary and appropriate and keep the register up to date, making those chan…

The pilot ground of the bar of Charleston shall extend from the bar thirty miles eastward, southward, and northward. Pilot boats shall normally cruise in an area designated by the South Carolina Commissioners of Pilotage for the Lower Coastal Area.

All boats used in the pilotage for the port and harbor of Charleston shall be entirely and absolutely subject to the inspection, direction, and approval of the South Carolina Commissioners of Pilotage for the Lower Coastal Area.

All boats used for pilotage at Charleston, Port Royal, and Georgetown shall be used exclusively for pilotage, except that the South Carolina Commissioners of Pilotage may grant temporary permission for those other uses as they deem appropriate. To establish their identity, all pi…

(A) The South Carolina Commissioners of Pilotage for the Upper Coastal Area must be appointed by the Governor, upon the recommendation of a majority of the Legislative Delegation of Georgetown County and shall serve for three years and until their successors are appointed and qua…

Except for reasons of health, satisfactory evidence of which shall be furnished to the South Carolina Commissioners of Pilotage when requested, no licensed pilot or apprentice shall discontinue to act nor absent himself at any time from the port and harbor to which he may belong …

Every pilot cruising or standing out to sea shall offer his services first to the vessel nearest the bar unless specifically ordered to the contrary by the authorized official of the group of licensed pilots on duty at the time and except when he sees a more distant vessel in dis…

A licensed pilot, if required by the master or commander of a vessel, shall remain on board while the vessel is at anchor. Any pilot neglecting or refusing to comply with a request to remain on board may have his license suspended or revoked by the South Carolina Commissioners of…