Jones Act not being enforced?

Professional Mariner Forum
1

I read today that the Ocean Network Shipping (“ONE”) vessel ONE STORK stopped in Savannah recently before heading to Charleston, and then Norfolk if I’m not mistaken. Being that she’s Japanese flagged, how is this legal without a Jones Act waiver?

I’m sure this is completely normal and I just missed a detail or two on the Jones Act while I wasn’t paying attention in class back at school…but interested to hear how this works for foreign companies. I figured if someone had gotten a waiver, it would have been in the news. Thanks all!

2

The ONE STORK wasn’t carrying cargo between US ports. She can stop in Savannah, offload stuff from Asia and load stuff from the US, then shift to Charleston, offload more stuff from Asia and then load stuff from the US, etc. So long as she’s not delivering US cargo from one US port to another US port then it’s all good.

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3

The UK P & I has just produced a Legal Briefing on global cabotage, it might illuminate a few misunderstandings.

4

And the EU cabotage rules FYI:

5

I used to discharge cargo at Los Angeles, Oakland and Seattle. We loaded cargo at all three ports for foreign destinations. Passengers joined and left in all three ports but only to and from foreign ports.

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Be on the lookout for a comprehensive paper on cabotage coming from the Seafarers’ Rights International in the near future.

7

There are also US flagged ships that are not jones act certified and they too make multiple US port calls. As long as you are not transporting cargo between US ports, everything is kosher. You can transship cargo to its port of destination as well as move empty containers between US ports.

I’m a little concerned about which maritime academy you attended and why you are just figuring this out.

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8

@Louisd75 @Tellarian @ombugge @Hogsnort @RiverRats Thanks everyone

9

Roger, thanks. Can’t exactly say we memorized the Jones Act…something tells me you’re a KP’er.

10

Nope. I drink to the dome.

Good luck in your career

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11

That’s SUNY to the uninformed (and no I did not got there).

12

I hope you didn’t go to SUNY because this is definitely taught there. Jones Act is basic knowledge.

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13

I was well aware of what the Jones act is. Did not know that its common practice for foreign container ships to discharge in multiple US ports. We didn’t learn that sort of thing at my school, all the focus was on tankers. All we were taught about containers was how to read the markings and how to use twist locks.

As you can imagine, my first night mate gig was interesting…

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14

1874!

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15

They didn’t teach the bits of the Jones Act that have nothing to do with cabotage, and I doubt any of the others do either.

16

The OP seems like a reasonable question, even if you do learn in school many practical aspects might not be obvious until it’s seen in practice. Nothing wrong with checking if what you see matches your understanding.

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