---
kind: "section"
citation: "46 U.S.C. § 10306"
title: "46"
title_heading: "Shipping"
number: "10306"
heading: "Exhibiting merchant mariners’ documents"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/46/10306"
units:
  - "Subtitle II — Vessels and Seamen"
  - "Part G — Merchant Seamen Protection and Relief"
  - "Chapter 103 — Foreign and Intercoastal Voyages"
---

# §10306. Exhibiting merchant mariners’ documents


Before signing the agreement required by [section 10302 of this title](/usc/46/10302.md), each individual required by [section 8701 of this title](/usc/46/8701.md) to have a merchant mariner’s document shall exhibit to the [master](/usc/46/10101.md?p=1) or individual in charge a document issued to the individual, appropriately endorsed for the capacity in which the individual is to serve.


## Source credit

(Pub. L. 98–89, Aug. 26, 1983, 97 Stat. 564; Pub. L. 103–206, title IV, § 404, Dec. 20, 1993, 107 Stat. 2436.)

## Notes

| Historical and Revision Notes |  |
| --- | --- |
| Revised section | Source section (U.S. Code) |
| 10306 | 46:643(c) |

Section 10306 requires a seaman to exhibit an appropriately endorsed merchant mariner’s document to the shipping commissioner before signing a shipping agreement. When a master acts as a shipping commissioner, the same procedure applies.

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

1993—Pub. L. 103–206 substituted “master or individual in charge” for “shipping commissioner”.