---
kind: "section"
citation: "47 U.S.C. § 355"
title: "47"
title_heading: "Telecommunications"
number: "355"
heading: "Survival craft"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/47/355"
units:
  - "Chapter 5 — Wire or Radio Communication"
  - "Subchapter III — Special Provisions Relating to Radio"
  - "Part II — Radio Equipment and Radio Operators On Board Ship"
---

# §355. Survival craft


Every [ship](/usc/47/153.md?p=46-A) required to be provided with survival craft radio by treaty to which the [United States](/usc/47/153.md?p=58) is a party, by statute, or by regulation made in conformity with a treaty, convention, or statute, shall be fitted with efficient radio equipment appropriate to such requirement under such rules and regulations as the Commission may find necessary for safety of life. For purposes of this section, “radio equipment” shall include portable as well as nonportable apparatus.


## Source credit

(June 19, 1934, ch. 652, title III, § 357, formerly § 355, as added May 20, 1937, ch. 229, § 10(b), 50 Stat. 194; renumbered § 357 and amended Aug. 13, 1954, ch. 729, § 2(a)(1), (e), 68 Stat. 706, 707; Pub. L. 89–121, § 8, Aug. 13, 1965, 79 Stat. 516.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

1965—Pub. L. 89–121 substituted “survival craft” for “lifeboat”.

1954—Act Aug. 13, 1954, § 2(a)(1), amended credit to section by changing section number from “355” to “357” of act June 19, 1934.

Act Aug. 13, 1954, § 2(e), provided that lifeboats be equipped with “radio equipment” rather than a “radio installation” and defined “radio equipment” as including portable as well as nonportable apparatus.

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date

Section effective May 20, 1937, unless deferred by the Commission, see section 16 of act May 20, 1937, set out as a note under section 351 of this title.