Reader Meredith wrote in with a question : " Why can boat master marry masses ? Can other people in charge of other tumid vessels perform weddings?“
Meredith , if you plan to have a sauceboat captain officiate your wedding ( how Jim and Pam of you ) , I hope you read this before leave port . While a good Panama knows that the master is the ultimate government agency on a ship , his or her world power extends only so far . At one decimal point , the United States Navy explicitly stated , " The commanding ship’s officer shall not perform a marriage ceremony on board his ship or aircraft . “
What about non - Navy captain , though ? Well that count on the headwaiter . They ca n’t perform marriages at sea ( or on wry land ) by virtue of their maritime permit alone , and no DoS has enacted a statute explicitly authorizing ships ' captain to officiate marriage . However , if a captainalsofalls into one of the category of " persons dependent to solemnize marriages" order in laws of the state they ’re in , then they ’re dear to go .
In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , my domicile sweet home , these qualified persons are :
Despite what the law of nature say , some masses have gone ahead and vex tie by bare old boat maitre d’hotel anyway , and the courts have been pretty inconsistent when ruling on the validity of these marriages . In one well - known case , Fisher vs. Fisher , a royal court ruled that a particular marriage solemnized by a ship ’s captain was valid ( and more generally that , absent a statute stating otherwise , an exchange of vows between two accept parties constituted a valid marriage ) . In another case , Norman vs. Norman , a court number down on the opposite side of the fencing .
So , kids , if you ’re planning on have a wedding at ocean , make indisputable your captain is qualified . Or just do it and lease the Court sort it out later . Or , if you ’re in New Jersey , I ’d be glad to be ordinate in the Universal Life Church and execute an officialmental_flosswedding for you . I ’ll take requestsvia Twitter .
