---
kind: "section"
citation: "46 U.S.C. § 11106"
title: "46"
title_heading: "Shipping"
number: "11106"
heading: "Wages on justifiable complaint of seamen"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/46/11106"
units:
  - "Subtitle II — Vessels and Seamen"
  - "Part G — Merchant Seamen Protection and Relief"
  - "Chapter 111 — Protection and Relief"
---

# §11106. Wages on justifiable complaint of seamen

- (a) Before a [seaman](/usc/46/10101.md?p=3) on a vessel of the United States is discharged in a foreign country by a consular officer on the [seaman](/usc/46/10101.md?p=3)’s complaint that the agreement required by this part has been breached because the vessel is badly provisioned or unseaworthy, or against the officers for cruel treatment, the officer shall inquire about the complaint. If satisfied of the justice of the complaint, the consular officer shall require the [master](/usc/46/10101.md?p=1) to pay the wages due the [seaman](/usc/46/10101.md?p=3) plus one month’s additional wages and shall discharge the [seaman](/usc/46/10101.md?p=3). The [master](/usc/46/10101.md?p=1) shall provide the [seaman](/usc/46/10101.md?p=3) with employment on another vessel or provide the [seaman](/usc/46/10101.md?p=3) with passage on another vessel to the port of original engagement, to the most convenient port of the United States, or to some port agreeable to the [seaman](/usc/46/10101.md?p=3).
- (b) When a vessel does not have sufficient provisions for the intended voyage, and the [seaman](/usc/46/10101.md?p=3) has been forced to accept a reduced ration or provisions that are bad in quality or unfit for use, the [seaman](/usc/46/10101.md?p=3) is entitled to recover from the [master](/usc/46/10101.md?p=1) or [owner](/usc/46/10101.md?p=2) an allowance, as additional wages, that the court hearing the case considers reasonable.
- (c) [Subsection (b)](#b) of this section does not apply when the reduction in rations was for a period during which the [seaman](/usc/46/10101.md?p=3) willfully and without sufficient cause failed to perform duties or was lawfully under confinement on board or on shore for misconduct, unless that reduction can be shown to have been unreasonable.
- (d) [Subsection (b)](#b) of this section does not apply to a fishing or whaling vessel or a [yacht](/usc/46/12101.md?p=b-3).

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 98–89, Aug. 26, 1983, 97 Stat. 579.)

## Notes

| Historical and Revision Notes |  |
| --- | --- |
| Revised section | Source section (U.S. Code) |
| 11106(a) | 46:685 |
| 11106(b)–(d) | 46:665 |

Section 11106 provides compensation to seamen on United States vessels when a shipping agreement is breached. It does not apply to fishing vessels, whaling vessels or yachts.