---
kind: "section"
citation: "46 U.S.C. § 10503"
title: "46"
title_heading: "Shipping"
number: "10503"
heading: "Exhibiting merchant mariners’ documents"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/46/10503"
units:
  - "Subtitle II — Vessels and Seamen"
  - "Part G — Merchant Seamen Protection and Relief"
  - "Chapter 105 — Coastwise Voyages"
---

# §10503. Exhibiting merchant mariners’ documents


Before signing the agreement required by [section 10502 of this title](/usc/46/10502.md), a [seaman](/usc/46/10101.md?p=3) 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) a document issued to the [seaman](/usc/46/10101.md?p=3) and appropriately endorsed for the capacity in which the [seaman](/usc/46/10101.md?p=3) is to serve.


## Source credit

(Pub. L. 98–89, Aug. 26, 1983, 97 Stat. 570.)

## Notes

| Historical and Revision Notes |  |
| --- | --- |
| Revised section | Source section (U.S. Code) |
| 10503 | 46:643 |

Under section 10503 seamen who are required to have a merchant mariner’s document must exhibit it before signing a shipping agreement on a coastwise voyage.