---
kind: "section"
citation: "33 U.S.C. § 381"
title: "33"
title_heading: "Navigation and Navigable Waters"
number: "381"
heading: "Use of public vessels to suppress piracy"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/33/381"
units:
  - "Chapter 7 — Regulations for the Suppression of Piracy"
---

# §381. Use of public vessels to suppress piracy


The President is authorized to employ so many of the public armed vessels as in his judgment the service may require, with suitable instructions to the commanders thereof, in protecting the merchant vessels of the United States and their crews from piratical aggressions and depredations.


## Source credit

(R.S. § 4293.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

R.S. § 4293 derived from acts Mar. 3, 1819, ch. 77, § 1, 3 Stat. 510; Jan. 30, 1823, ch. 7, 3 Stat. 721.