CHAPTER XV
LAWS DEFINING OFFICERS OF MERCHANT VESSELS
Citizenship of officers.
All the officers of vessels of the United States who shall have charge of a watch, including pilots, shall in all cases be citizens of the United States. [Metlakahtla Indians excepted by act, March 4, 1907.] (R. S., 4131.)
The word "officers" shall include the chief engineer and each assistant engineer in charge of a watch on vessels propelled wholly or in part by steam; and after the first day of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, no person shall be qualified to hold a license as a commander or watch officer of a merchant vessel of the United States who is not a native-born citizen, or whose naturalization as a citizen shall not have been fully completed. (May 28, 1896; sec. 1.)
In cases where on a foreign voyage, or on a voyage from an Atlantic to a Pacific port of the United States, any such vessel is for any reason deprived of the services of an officer below the grade of master, his place, or a vacancy caused by the promotion of another officer to such place, may be supplied by a person not a citizen of the United States until the first return of such vessel to its home port; and such vessel shall not be liable to any penalty or penal tax for such employment of an alien officer. (June 26, 1884; sec. 1; May 28, 1896; sec. 3.)
The President of the United States is hereby authorized, whenever in his discretion the needs of foreign commerce may require, to suspend by order, so far and for such length of time as he may deem desirable, the provisions of law prescribing that all the watch officers of vessels of the United States registered for foreign trade shall be citizens of the United States. (Aug. 18, 1914; sec. 2.)
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The provisions of law prescribing that the watch officers of vessels of the United States registered for foreign trade shall be citizens of the United States are hereby suspended so far and for such length of time as is herein provided, namely: All foreign-built ships which shall be admitted to United States registry under said act may retain the watch officers employed thereon, without regard to citizenship, for seven years from this date, and such watch officers shall be eligible for promotion. Any vacancy occurring among such watch officers within two years from this date may be filled without regard to citizenship; but any vacancy which may occur thereafter shall be filled by a watch officer who is a citizen of the United States. * * * (Executive order, Sept. 4, 1914.)