Sexual harassment and sexual assault can take many forms: unwanted sexual comments or advances, inappropriate touching, requests for sexual favors, threats, or other unwanted sexual behavior. The person responsible may be a supervisor, an officer, a coworker, or someone else aboard the ship. What happens aboard the ship can be very different from what the cruise line’s written policies promise.

Sexual harassment generally refers to unwelcome sexual conduct that affects your working environment — for example, sexual comments, propositions, or invitations. Sexual assault involves physical conduct, such as unwanted or nonconsensual sexual contact. Both are serious, and both may give rise to legal rights.

Crewmembers often live and work aboard the ship for months at a time and may depend on supervisors and officers for their jobs, work assignments, evaluations, and future contracts. When the person involved has authority over you, speaking up can feel intimidating. You can speak with an attorney confidentially before deciding what to do.

Get to a safe place. If you are in immediate danger, seek help from ship security or other appropriate personnel. Report the incident when you feel it is safe to do so, ask for a written report, and keep a copy. Request medical care if needed — aboard the ship or from a shore-side provider — and keep copies of your medical records.

Save messages, emails, photographs, videos, and other communications that may help document what happened — and do not delete anything related to the incident. If it is safe to do so, keep the names and contact information of witnesses. Keep your employment agreement, company policies, work records, and copies of any reports or disciplinary notices.

Be careful before signing anything about the incident, your employment, or your departure from the ship. Do not sign until you understand what you are agreeing to. A maritime attorney can review the documents with you before you sign.

If you feel safe doing so, you can report to ship security, a supervisor, or the cruise line’s designated reporting system. If the person involved is your supervisor or another person in authority, you may have other options for reporting. Keep a copy of any report and other records related to what happened.

Reporting is especially difficult when the person involved has power over your job, assignments, or future contracts. If you are worried about retaliation or do not feel comfortable reporting through your normal chain of command, you can speak with a maritime attorney about your situation and your options first.

Retaliation can take many forms, including termination or early termination of your contract, undesirable or unfair work assignments, threats or intimidation, unfair discipline or increased scrutiny, reduced hours or work opportunities, being sent home after a complaint, or other negative treatment after reporting misconduct or rejecting unwanted advances. Timing and circumstances can matter — keep copies of complaints, messages, and employment records.

You do not have to handle the situation alone. You can speak with a maritime attorney confidentially about your situation, your rights, and your legal options — before deciding how to report, or whether to report at all.

It depends on the circumstances. A cruise line may have a responsibility to provide a safe working environment and to take reasonable steps to address harassment, assault, and other misconduct — including how it responds after a report. Who was involved, what the cruise line knew or should have known, and how the company responded can all be important.

Often, yes — it depends on the circumstances of the case. Being from another country, or having an employment agreement that refers to another country, does not necessarily mean a claim must be pursued outside the United States. In one recent case, a U.S. court rejected a cruise line’s attempt to require a Brazilian crewmember to litigate her claims in Bermuda, allowing the case to continue in Florida.

Depending on the circumstances, the rights of crewmembers who experience sexual assault, sexual harassment, or retaliation may involve the Jones Act, general maritime law, federal protections, or other applicable laws. A maritime attorney can help you understand which laws may apply to your situation.

Deadlines vary depending on your case, and some may be much shorter than you expect. Federal maritime law generally provides a three-year time limit for many maritime injury claims, but other laws, contracts, or requirements may impose different deadlines. Do not wait to seek legal advice — speak with a maritime attorney as soon as possible to understand the deadline that applies to you.

Yes. Crew Advocacy has represented cruise ship crewmembers in cases involving sexual assault, sexual harassment, retaliation, and other maritime claims — including a $150,000 recovery for a crewmember who was sexually assaulted by a coworker. Contact us for a confidential consultation to learn about your options.

A maritime lawyer typically represents:

• Injured crew members — Jones Act negligence claims, maintenance and cure, and unseaworthiness claims against shipowners;
• Dockside and shipyard workers — Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA) claims;
• Cruise passengers — injury, illness, and assault claims against cruise lines;
• Families — wrongful-death claims at sea under the Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA);
• Seafarers in disputes — unpaid or shorted wages, breaches of employment agreements, and retaliation for reporting injuries or unsafe conditions.

Because maritime deadlines and procedural rules differ sharply from ordinary personal-injury or workers’-compensation practice, contact a maritime lawyer as soon as possible after an incident — long before any deadline approaches.

The Jones Act (46 U.S.C. §30104) extends to seamen the negligence-based recovery that railroad workers have under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act. You do not have to prove your employer was solely at fault — even partial negligence counts. Unsafe methods of work, defective or poorly maintained equipment, inadequate training or staffing, failure to warn, an incompetent crew, or an unsafe order can all support the claim. Recoverable damages can include past and future medical expenses, lost wages and diminished earning capacity, and pain and suffering.

Separate from negligence, the shipowner owes every seaman an absolute warranty of seaworthiness — the vessel, its equipment, and its crew must be reasonably fit for their intended use — as well as maintenance and cure (see Q4). Those rights exist regardless of whether the employer was negligent.

Seaman status is a mixed question of law and fact. Under the Supreme Court’s test in Chandris, Inc. v. Latsis, 515 U.S. 347 (1995), a seaman must (1) perform duties that contribute to the function of the vessel or the accomplishment of its mission, and (2) have an employment-related connection to a vessel in navigation (or an identifiable group of vessels) that is substantial in duration and nature. A worker who spends less than roughly 30% of their time in the service of a vessel in navigation is presumed land-based — a guideline, not a bright line.

Crew members who typically qualify include deckhands, mates, engineers, galley and hotel staff, fishermen, and others regularly assigned to a vessel. Two clarifications from the same case: land-based workers do not become seamen merely because they happen to be aboard a vessel when injured, and seamen do not lose their status when their duties temporarily take them ashore. If you are not a seaman — for example, a longshore worker, ship repairer, or shipbuilder — you are likely covered by the LHWCA instead (see Q5).

Every seaman injured in the service of the ship is entitled to these benefits regardless of fault:

• Maintenance — a modest daily stipend toward room and board while you recover (the rate may be set by your contract or collective bargaining agreement);
• Cure — reasonable and necessary medical treatment, including hospitalization, therapy, and medication, until you reach maximum medical improvement — the point at which further treatment is not reasonably expected to improve your condition.

The employer must investigate the claim promptly and pay until maximum medical improvement, and you generally have the right to choose your own doctor. An employer who willfully and wantonly fails to pay — or arbitrarily terminates benefits — can face punitive damages and attorney’s fees under Atlantic Sounding Co. v. Townsend, 557 U.S. 404 (2009). If your benefits are denied, delayed, or cut off early, speak with a maritime lawyer before accepting the company’s decision.

• Jones Act / general maritime personal injury: a civil action must generally be brought within 3 years of the injury (46 U.S.C. §30106);
• Contractual notice: many employment contracts and collective bargaining agreements require prompt written notice of injury — sometimes within days. Missing contractual notice can jeopardize benefits;
• LHWCA claims (longshore and other non-seaman maritime workers): written notice generally within 30 days of the injury, and a claim for compensation filed within 1 year;
• Cruise passenger claims: typically, 6 months’ written notice and 1 year to sue under the ticket (see Q8).

Evidence disappears quickly at sea — voyage data, incident reports, crew statements, and video are routinely overwritten or lost. Report the injury in writing immediately and consult a lawyer early, whatever the deadline.

The Seaman’s Protection Act (46 U.S.C. §2114) protects seafarers against retaliation for, among other things, reporting an injury or an unsafe working condition; a complaint generally must be filed with OSHA within 180 days of the retaliatory act (29 C.F.R. §1986.103). Retaliation claims can also arise under general maritime law and other laws depending on the facts.

Whatever happens, you remain entitled to:

• Earned wages through the date of discharge or the end of the voyage, plus wages guaranteed by your employment agreement or collective bargaining agreement;
• Maintenance and cure, without pressure to sign releases or recorded statements.

Practical rule: never give a recorded statement or sign a release, settlement, or “voluntary” resignation aboard the vessel without first having a maritime lawyer review it — documents signed under pressure at sea are often far more favorable to the company than to you.

Common categories of passenger claims include:

• Slip-and-fall and trip-and-fall — wet decks, poor lighting, worn or slippery stairs, unmarked hazards (in many cases the passenger must show the line knew, or should have known, of the hazard — which makes early documentation critical);
• Gangway, tender, and embarkation accidents;
• Medical negligence by the ship’s doctor or nurses;
• Foodborne illness, including outbreaks aboard the ship;
• Assault and other crimes tied to inadequate security or crew screening;
• Shore-excursion injuries, where the excursion was promoted, sold, or operated through the cruise line.

While still onboard: report the incident in writing before disembarking, request copies of the incident report and your medical records, photograph the scene and the hazard, and collect the names and contact details of witnesses. Once home, send written notice within the ticket’s deadline and preserve all evidence — the notice clock usually starts on the day of injury.

Under 46 U.S.C. §30526, a carrier of passengers to or from U.S. ports may not require notice of a personal-injury or death claim sooner than 6 months after the injury, or a lawsuit sooner than 1 year after the injury — and tickets typically (and lawfully) impose exactly those limits. Missing either usually bars the claim entirely. Limited exceptions exist: failure to give notice may be excused where the carrier knew of the injury and was not prejudiced by the failure, or where there was a satisfactory reason for it, and the notice period is tolled for minors, persons of unsound mind, and wrongful-death claims until a legal representative is appointed (46 U.S.C. §30526(c)–(d)).
Tickets also typically dictate where you must sue — often a specific state or federal court, and sometimes arbitration. The Supreme Court held in Carnival Cruise Lines, Inc. v. Shute, 499 U.S. 585 (1991), that forum-selection clauses in cruise tickets are generally enforceable so long as they are not unreasonably burdensome. Locate your ticket or booking confirmation immediately after an incident, note the notice, suit, and venue provisions, and have a lawyer calendar every deadline.

For passengers, the ticket’s forum-selection clause usually requires suit in a U.S. court or arbitration, and U.S. federal admiralty jurisdiction extends to maritime torts on navigable waters and on the high seas. Which country’s substantive law applies — U.S. maritime law, the law of the ship’s flag state, or another law — can depend on the ticket’s choice-of-law clause, where the company is based, where the ticket was purchased, and the passenger’s home country.

For crew members the analysis is similar but often harder: foreign seamen can and do bring Jones Act and general maritime claims in U.S. courts, but employment contracts with foreign choice-of-law or arbitration clauses can narrow the available remedies. Deaths occurring more than 3 nautical miles from U.S. shores fall under the Death on the High Seas Act (46 U.S.C. §30302), which allows a civil action by the decedent’s personal representative for the exclusive benefit of the decedent’s spouse, parent, child, or dependent relative. Before assuming there is no claim — or that a foreign forum is your only option — have a maritime lawyer review the actual ticket or contract.

Immediately after the incident:

1. Report in writing to the master, supervisor, or the ship’s security or medical office — and keep a copy;
2. Get medical care and copies of all records, onboard and ashore;
3. Photograph the scene, the equipment, the hazard, and your injuries;
4. Collect witnesses — names, positions, and contact information;
5. Track losses — medical bills, out-of-pocket costs, and missed wages;
6. Don’t sign a recorded statement, release, or settlement without legal review;
7. Find your ticket or employment contract and calendar every deadline in it.

Most maritime plaintiff’s lawyers offer free initial consultations and take these cases on a contingency fee — the fee is a percentage of the recovery, so there is no attorney’s fee unless you obtain compensation. Fee percentages and the handling of case costs vary by firm and by case, so ask for the terms in writing before you sign anything.

Important notice. This FAQ provides general information about United States maritime law as of October 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney–client relationship. Deadlines, rights, and remedies depend on the specific facts, the governing ticket or contract, and the applicable law, all of which change over time and vary by case.

Consult a licensed maritime attorney about your specific situation before acting — or before allowing any deadline to pass.