HQ 112216: Coastwise trade; Passenger transportation; Great Lakes; Voyage to nowhere; 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 112216

                          May 20, 1992


VES-3-CO:R:IT:C  112216 LLB

CATEGORY: Carriers

Mr. William A. Hoey
Blue Water Explorations, Ltd.
P.O. Box 114
Grosse Ile, Michigan 48138

RE:  Coastwise trade; Passenger transportation; Great Lakes;
     Voyage to nowhere; 46 U.S.C. App. 289

Dear Mr. Hoey:

     Reference is made to your letter of April 20, 1992,
concerning the legality of operating a foreign-flag passenger
vessel from and to the same United States port on the Detroit
River.

FACTS:

     It is reported that the operators of a Canadian-flag vessel
intend to offer passenger harbor cruises on the Detroit River
beginning this year.  Passengers would be embarked at a dock in
Detroit harbor, taken on a tour of the harbor, which reportedly
would include at some point crossing the mid-point of the Detroit
River which marks the international boundary between the United
States and Canada, and returned to the original point of
embarkation for discharge at the conclusion of the tour.  The
boundary on the Detroit River at the point under consideration is
approximately 1100 feet from the dock facility in the United
States.

ISSUE:

     Whether traditional voyage to nowhere principles apply on
voyages which proceed less than three miles from the United
States but which do enter foreign territorial waters.

LAW AND ANALYSIS:

     The Act of June 19, 1886, as amended (24 Stat. 81; 46
U.S.C. App.  289, sometimes called 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 and landed.

     For your general information, we have consistently
interpreted this prohibition to apply to all vessels except
United States-built, owned, and properly documented vessels (see
46 U.S.C.  12106, 12110, 46 U.S.C. App.  883, and 19 C.F.R.
4.80).

     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.
However, the transportation of passengers to the high seas
or foreign waters and back to the point of embarkation,
assuming the passengers do not go ashore, even temporarily,
at another United States point, often called a "voyage to
nowhere," is not considered coastwise trade.  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.

     The first of these positions, regarding transportation
of passengers entirely within territorial waters on a voyage
in which they embark and disembark at the same coastwise point
is based on a 1900 decision (Treasury Decision 22275).  Our
rulings have consistently followed this position.

     The second of these positions, regarding transportation
of passengers from a point in the United States to the high
seas or foreign waters and back to the same point, is based
on a 1912 opinion of the Attorney General of the United States
(29 Opinions of the Attorney General 318).  We have consistently
followed this position as well.

     The three-mile territorial sea limit is useful in defining
the boundary between the territorial waters of the United States
and the high seas.  This limitation bears no relevance to
circumstances in which the waters of the United States and those
of a foreign nation are contiguous.  This is true regardless of
whether the point of contiguity is greater or lesser that three
miles.  In fact, Customs ruled in another case concerning
passenger transportation on the Great Lakes, that since the
international boundary was some 150 miles from the point of
embarkation a voyage to nowhere would require a 300-mile round-
trip (Customs Ruling 109815, December 5, 1988).

HOLDING:

     A cruise to nowhere may involve a voyage which proceeds less
than three miles outward from the United States, so long as a
vessel enters the territorial waters of another nation.  Such a
cruise to nowhere is permitted to be accomplished with the use of
a foreign-flag vessel.

                              Sincerely,




                              B. James Fritz
                              Chief
                              Carrier Rulings Branch