[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 29, Volume 3]
[Revised as of July 1, 2005]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 29CFR783.42]

[Page 615]
 
                             TITLE 29--LABOR
 
         CHAPTER V--WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
 
PART 783_APPLICATION OF THE FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT TO EMPLOYEES 
EMPLOYED AS SEAMEN--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 783.42  Vessels neither ``documented'' nor ``numbered''.

    An ``American vessel'' on which employment as a seaman is subject to 
the minimum wage under the provisions of section 6(b)(2) and section 
13(a)(14) is not limited by the language of the Act to those vessels 
which are ``documented'' or ``numbered'' as described above in 
Sec. Sec. 783.40 and 783.41. Since the term ``American vessel'' has 
traditionally been applied to regularly documented vessels (see U.S. v. 
Rogers, 27 Fed. Cas. 890; Badger v. Entierrez, 111 U.S. 734; 18 Op. A.G. 
234 (1885); 48 Am. Jur. 40), the inclusion of numbered vessels in the 
statutory definition of ``American vessel'' would indicate that the work 
``includes'' is used in the sense of ``embracing'', as an enlargement 
and not as a word of limitation. The term may therefore apply toother 
vessels that do not fall within the illustrations given. For example, 
neither the documenting laws nor the numbering laws apply to vessels 
plying the purely internal waters of a State which do not join up with 
navigable waters touching on another State (19 CFR 3.5(a)(4); 33 CFR 
2.10-5), but, nevertheless, the Fair Labor Standards Act does apply in 
those areas and it clearly would not comport with the remedial purpose 
of the Act to exclude from its minimum wage provisions seamen engaged in 
commerce or in the production of goods for commerce in those areas 
though the vessels are not documented or numbered. On the contrary, the 
legislative history shows the affirmative purpose to improve, though to 
a limited extent, the status of seamen (Sen. Rep. No. 145, 87th Cong., 
1st sess., p. 32, 50).

                     Computation of Wages and Hours