HQ 111291: Coastwise; Voyage to Nowhere; Foreign-Built Vessel; TROPICANA; 46 U.S.C. App. 289.

Native CBP ruling rendition. Applicability is fact-specific; modification/revocation relationships and original publisher date are retained. Publisher sentinel year0001 means unknown date, not a historical legal adoption.

                            HQ 111291

                         October 9, 1990


VES-3-02  CO:R:P:C  111291  JBW

CATEGORY:  Carriers

Denton N. Thomas, Esq.
Andrews & Kurth
Texas Commerce Towers
Houston, Texas 77002

RE:  Coastwise; Voyage to Nowhere; Foreign-Built Vessel;
     TROPICANA; 46 U.S.C. App. 289.

Dear Mr. Thomas:

     This letter is in response to your letter on behalf of
Marlyn Management Company, dated September 12, 1990, requesting a
ruling regarding the use of the foreign-built vessel, TROPICANA,
in transporting passengers from a point in the United States.

FACTS:

     The TROPICANA is a Bahamian-flag motor passenger ship that
was built by Cockerill Yards, Hoboken, Belgium, in 1966.
As described in your letter, Marlyn Management Company intends to
use the vessel on day cruises lasting from six to eight hours and
departing from the Port of Freeport, Texas.  These trips will
involve carrying passengers out twelve miles and beyond and
returning to the same port from which the vessel departed, with
no intermediate stops.

ISSUE:

     Whether the carriage of passengers by a foreign-built
vessel beyond the United States territorial limits is an
engagement in the coastwise trade under United States law.

LAW AND ANALYSIS:

     The coastwise passenger law provides that:

          No foreign vessel 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.

46 U.S.C. App. 289.  The Customs Service has consistently
interpreted this proscription to apply to any vessel except a
United States built, owned, and properly documented vessel. See
46 U.S.C.A. 12106 & 12110 (West Supp. 1990), 46 U.S.C. App.
289, and 19 C.F.R. 4.80(a) (1989).  .

     In interpreting the coastwise laws as applied to the
transportation of passengers, the Customs Service has ruled that
the carriage of passengers entirely within territorial waters,
even though the passengers disembark at their point of
embarkation and the vessel touches no other point, is considered
coastwise trade subject to the coastwise laws.  E.g.,
Headquarters Ruling Letter 110990, dated May 21, 1990.  However,
the transportation of passengers to the high seas or foreign
waters and back to the precise point of embarkation, often called
a "voyage to nowhere," is not considered coastwise trade.  Id.
An important corollary to this rule is that a "voyage to nowhere"
assumes the passengers do not leave the vessel, even temporarily,
at another United States point.  Id.  Furthermore, the carriage
of fishing parties for hire, even if the vessel proceeds beyond
territorial waters and returns to the point of the passengers'
embarkation, is considered coastwise trade.  Headquarters Ruling
Letter 111051, dated August 16, 1990.

     The territorial waters of the United States consist of the
territorial sea, defined as the belt, three nautical miles wide,
adjacent to the coast of the United States and seaward of the
territorial sea baseline.

     Based on the foregoing provisions and interpretations, the
TROPICANA, being foreign-built, may not qualify to engage in
coastwise trade.  If the itineraries of the TROPICANA include
only trips beyond the territorial limits, then such trips will
not result in an engagement by the vessel in the coastwise trade.
However, if the vessel stays within the territorial waters of the
United States, then the prohibitions contained in the coastwise
laws will apply to the voyage.

HOLDING:

     The use of foreign-built vessel to transport passengers on
trips beyond the three-mile territorial limits departing from
and returning to the same dock is not considered an engagement in
the coastwise trade, provided the passengers do not leave the
vessel at another United States point.


                              Sincerely,



                              B. James Fritz
                              Chief
                              Carrier Rulings Branch