Title 33 — Navigation and Navigable WatersRelease 119-73not60
§383 Resistance of Pirates by Merchant Vessels
Title 33 › Chapter 7— REGULATIONS FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF PIRACY › § 383
Summary
The captain and crew of a U.S. merchant ship owned entirely or partly by a U.S. citizen may defend their vessel if an armed ship attacks, searches, seizes, or tries to hold it. They can overpower and capture the attacking vessel (unless it is an official warship of a nation at peace with the United States), and they may recapture any of their ships taken and bring them into any U.S. port.
Full Legal Text
Title 33, §383
Navigation and Navigable Waters — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
The commander and crew of any merchant vessel of the United States, owned wholly, or in part, by a citizen thereof, may oppose and defend against any aggression, search, restraint, depredation, or seizure, which shall be attempted upon such vessel, or upon any other vessel so owned, by the commander or crew of any armed vessel whatsoever, not being a public armed vessel of some nation in amity with the United States, and may subdue and capture the same; and may also retake any vessel so owned which may have been captured by the commander or crew of any such armed vessel, and send the same into any port of the United States.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Editorial Notes
Codification R.S. § 4295 derived from acts Mar. 3, 1819, ch. 77, § 3, 3 Stat. 513; Jan. 30, 1823, ch. 7, 3 Stat. 721.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
33 U.S.C. § 383
Title 33 — Navigation and Navigable Waters
Last Updated
Apr 5, 2026
Release point: 119-73not60