---
kind: "section"
citation: "46 U.S.C. § 57511"
title: "46"
title_heading: "Shipping"
number: "57511"
heading: "Demise charters"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/46/57511"
units:
  - "Subtitle V — Merchant Marine"
  - "Part F — Government-Owned Merchant Vessels"
  - "Chapter 575 — Construction, Charter, and Sale of Vessels"
  - "Subchapter II — Charters"
---

# §57511. Demise charters


A charter by the [Secretary](/usc/46/53101.md?p=8) of Transportation under this chapter shall demise the [vessel](/usc/46/53501.md?p=9) to the charterer subject to all usual conditions contained in a bareboat charter. The charter shall be for a term the [Secretary](/usc/46/53101.md?p=8) considers to be in the best interest of the [United States](/usc/46/53101.md?p=10) Government and the merchant marine.


## Source credit

(Pub. L. 109–304, § 8(c), Oct. 6, 2006, 120 Stat. 1666.)

## Notes

| Historical and Revision Notes |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Revised<br>Section | Source (U.S. Code) | Source (Statutes at Large) |
| 57511 | 46 App.:1201. | June 29, 1936, ch. 858, title VII, § 711, 49 Stat. 2010; Pub. L. 97–31, § 12(113), Aug. 6, 1981, 95 Stat. 163. |

The words “for a term the Secretary considers to be” are substituted for “until January 1, 1940, shall be for terms of three years or less as the Secretary of Transportation may decide: Provided, That after January 1, 1940, charters may be executed by the Secretary of Transportation for such terms as the experience gained by the Secretary of Transportation shall indicate are” to eliminate unnecessary and obsolete words.