delivered the opinion of the Court.
We decide whether the parent of a seaman who died from injuries incurred aboard respondents’ vessel may recover under general maritime law for loss of society, and whether a claim for the seaman’s lost future earnings survives his death.
I
Ludwick Torregano was a seaman aboard the vessel MW Archon. On the evening of July 18, 1984, Clifford Melrose, a fellow crew member, stabbed Torregano repeatedly, killing him. At the time, the ship was docked in the harbor of Vancouver, Washington.
Mercedel Miles, Torregano’s mother and administratrix of his estate, sued Apex Marine Corporation and Westchester Marine Shipping Company, the vessel’s operators, Archon Marine Company, the charterer, and Aeron Marine Company, the Archon’s owner (collectively Apex), in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Miles alleged negligence under the Jones Act, 41 Stat. 1007, as amended, 46 U. S. C. App. § 688, for failure to prevent the assault on her son, and breach of the warranty of seaworthiness under general maritime law for hiring a crew member unfit to serve. She sought compensation for loss of support *22 and services and loss of society resulting from the death of her son, punitive damages, and compensation to the estate for Torregano’s pain and suffering prior to his death and for his lost future income.
At trial, the District Court granted Apex’s motion to strike the claim for punitive damages, ruled that the estate could not recover Torregano’s lost future income, and denied Miles’ motion for a directed verdict as to negligence and unseaworthiness. The court instructed the jury that Miles could not recover damages for loss of society if they found that she was not financially dependent on her son.
The jury found that Apex was negligent and that Torre-gano was 7% contributorily negligent in causing his death, but that the ship was seaworthy. After discounting for Torregano’s contributory negligence, the jury awarded Miles $7,254 for the loss of support and services of her son and awarded the estate $130,200 for Torregano’s pain and suffering. The jury also found that Miles was not financially dependent on her son and therefore not entitled to damages for loss of society. The District Court denied both parties’ motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and entered judgment accordingly.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.
We granted Miles’ petition for certiorari on these two issues,
II
We rely primarily on
Moragne
v.
States Marine Lines, Inc.,
This Court overruled The Harrisburg. After questioning whether The Harrisburg was a proper statement of the law even in 1886, the Court set aside that issue because a “development of major significance ha[d] intervened.” Moragne, supra, at 388. Specifically, the state legislatures and Congress had rejected wholesale the rule against wrongful death. Every State in the Union had enacted a wrongful death statute. In 1920, Congress enacted two pieces of legislation creating a wrongful death action for most maritime deaths. The Jones Act, 41 Stat. 1007, as amended, 46 U. S. C. App. §688, through incorporation of the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA), 35 Stat. 65, as amended, 45 U. S. C. §§ 51-59, created a wrongful death action in favor of the per *24 sonal representative of a seaman killed in the course of employment. The Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA), 41 Stat. 537, 46 U. S. C. App. §§761, 762, created a similar action for the representative of anyone killed on the high seas.
These statutes established an unambiguous policy in abrogation of those principles that underlay
The Harrisburg.
Such a policy is “to be given its appropriate weight not only in matters of statutory construction but also in those of deci-sional law.”
Moragne, supra,
at 391. Admiralty is not created in a vacuum; legislation has always served as an important source of both common law and admiralty principles.
But legislation sends other signals to which an admiralty court must attend. “The legislature does not, of course, merely enact general policies. By the terms of a statute, it also indicates its conception of the sphere within which the policy is to have effect.”
Moragne, supra,
at 392. Congress, in the exercise of its legislative powers, is free to say “this much and no more.” An admiralty court is not free to go beyond those limits. The Jones Act and DOHSA established a policy in favor of maritime wrongful death recovery. The central issue in
Moragne
was whether the limits of those statutes proscribed a more general maritime cause of action.
The Court found no such proscription. Rather, the unfortunate situation of Moragne’s widow had been created by a change in the maritime seascape that Congress could not have anticipated. At the time Congress passed the Jones Act and DOHSA, federal courts uniformly applied state wrongful death statutes for deaths occurring in state territorial waters. Except in those rare cases where state statutes
*25
were also intended to apply on the high seas, however, there was no recovery for wrongful death outside territorial waters. See
Moragne, supra,
at 393, and n. 10. DOHSA filled this void, creating a wrongful death action for all persons killed on the high seas, sounding in both negligence and unseaworthiness. Congress did not extend DOHSA to territorial waters because it believed state statutes sufficient in those areas.
And so they were when DOHSA was passed. All state statutes allowed for wrongful death recovery in negligence, and virtually all DOHSA claims sounded in negligence. Unseaworthiness was “an obscure and relatively little used remedy,” largely because a shipowner’s duty at that time was only to use due diligence to provide a seaworthy ship. See G. Gilmore & C. Black, The Law of Admiralty 383, 375 (2d ed. 1975). Thus, although DOHSA permitted actions in both negligence and unseaworthiness, it worked essentially as did state wrongful death statutes. DOHSA created a near uniform system of wrongful death recovery.
“The revolution in the law began with Mahnich v. Southern S. S. Co., [
The emergence of unseaworthiness as a widely used theory of liability made manifest certain anomalies in maritime law that had not previously caused great hardship. First, in territorial waters, general maritime law allowed a remedy for unseaworthiness resulting in injury, but not for death. Second, DOHSA allowed a remedy for death resulting from unseaworthiness on the high seas, but general maritime law did not allow such recovery for a similar death in territorial waters. Finally, in what
Moragne
called the “strangest” anomaly, in those States whose statutes allowed a claim for wrongful death resulting from unseaworthiness, recovery was available for the death of a longshoreman due to unseaworthiness, but not for the death of a Jones Act seaman. See
Moragne, supra,
at 395-396. This was because wrongful death actions under the Jones Act are limited to negligence, and the Jones Act pre-empts state law remedies for the death or injury of a seaman. See
Gillespie
v.
United States Steel Corp.,
The United States, as
amicus curiae,
urged the
Moragne
Court to eliminate these inconsistencies and render maritime wrongful death law uniform by creating a general maritime wrongful death action applicable in all waters. The territorial limitations placed on wrongful death actions by DOHSA did not bar such a solution. DOHSA was itself a manifestation of congressional intent “to achieve ‘uniformity in the exercise of admiralty jurisdiction.’”
Moragne, supra,
at 401, quoting
Gillespie, supra,
at 155. Nothing in that Act or in the Jones Act could be read to preclude this Court from ex
*27
ercising its admiralty power to remedy nonuniformities that could not have been anticipated when those statutes were passed.
Moragne, supra,
at 399-400. The Court therefore overruled
The Harrisburg
and created a general maritime wrongful death cause of action. This result was not only consistent with the general policy of both 1920 Acts favoring wrongful death recovery, but also effectuated “the constitutionally based principle that federal admiralty law should be ‘a system of law coextensive with, and operating uniformly in, the whole country.’”
Moragne, supra,
at 402, quoting
The Lottawanna,
rH HH
We have described Moragne at length because it exemplifies the fundamental principles that guide our decision in this case. We no longer live in an era when seamen and their loved ones must look primarily to the courts as a source of substantive legal protection from injury and death; Congress and the States have legislated extensively in these areas. In this era, an admiralty court should look primarily to these legislative enactments for policy guidance. We may supplement these statutory remedies where doing so would achieve the uniform vindication of such policies consistent with our constitutional mandate, but we must also keep strictly within the limits imposed by Congress. Congress retains superior authority in these matters, and an admiralty court must be vigilant not to overstep the well-considered boundaries imposed by federal legislation. These statutes both direct and delimit our actions.
Apex contends that Moragne’s holding, creating a general maritime wrongful death action, does not apply in this case because Moragne was a longshoreman, whereas Torregano was a true seaman. Apex is correct that Moragne does not apply on its facts, but we decline to limit Moragne to its facts.
Historically, a shipowner’s duty of seaworthiness under general maritime law ran to seamen in the ship’s employ.
*28
See
Sieracki,
Apex asks us not to extend Moragne to suits for the death of true seamen. This limitation is warranted, they say, because true seamen, unlike longshoremen, are covered under the Jones Act. The Jones Act provides a cause of action against the seaman’s employer for wrongful death resulting from negligence that Apex contends is preclusive of any recovery for death from unseaworthiness. See 46 U. S. C. App. §688.
This Court first addressed the preclusive effect of the Jones Act wrongful death provision in
Lindgren
v.
United States,
Neither
Lindgren
nor
Gillespie
considered the effect of the Jones Act on a general maritime wrongful death action. Indeed, no such action existed at the time those cases were decided.
Moragne
addressed the question explicitly. The Court explained there that the preclusive effect of the Jones Act established in
Lindgren
and
Gillespie
extends only to state remedies and not to a general maritime wrongful death action. See
Moragne,
The Jones Act provides an action in negligence for the death or injury of a seaman. It thereby overruled
The Osceola,
There is also little question that
Moragne
intended to create a general maritime wrongful death action applicable beyond the situation of longshoremen. For one thing,
Moragne
explicitly overruled
The Harrisburg. Moragne, supra,
at 409.
The Harrisburg
involved a true seaman.
The Harrisburg,
IV
Moragne
did not set forth the scope of the damages recoverable under the maritime wrongful death action. The Court first considered that question in
Sea-Land Services, Inc.
v.
Gaudet,
We considered DOHSA in
Mobil Oil Corp.
v.
Higginbotham,
Respondents argued that admiralty courts have traditionally undertaken to supplement maritime statutes. The Court’s answer in Higginbotham is fully consistent with those principles we have here derived from Moragne: Congress has spoken directly to the question of recoverable damages on the high seas, and “when it does speak directly to a question, the courts are not free to ‘supplement’ Congress’ answer so thoroughly that the Act becomes meaningless.” Higginbotham, supra, at 625. Moragne involved gap filling in an area left open by statute; supplementation was entirely appropriate. But in an “area covered by the statute, it would be no more appropriate to prescribe a different measure of damages than to prescribe a different statute of limitations, or a different class of beneficiaries.” Higginbotham, supra, at 625.
The logic of Higginbotham controls our decision here. The holding of Gaudet applies only in territorial waters, and it applies only to longshoremen. Gaudet did not consider the *32 preclusive effect of the Jones Act for deaths of true seamen. We do so now.
Unlike DOHSA, the Jones Act does not explicitly limit damages to any particular form. Enacted in 1920, the Jones Act makes applicable to seamen the substantive recovery provisions of the older FELA. See 46 U. S. C. App. § 688. FELA recites only that employers shall be liable in “damages” for the injury or death of one protected under the Act. 45 U. S. C. §51. In
Michigan Central R. Co.
v.
Vreeland,
When Congress passed the Jones Act, the
Vreeland
gloss on FELA, and the hoary tradition behind it, were well established. Incorporating FELA unaltered into the Jones Act, Congress must have intended to incorporate the pecuniary limitation on damages as well. We assume that Congress is aware of existing law when it passes legislation. See
Cannon
v.
University of Chicago,
The Jones Act also precludes recovery for loss of society in this case. The Jones Act applies when a seaman has been killed as a result of negligence, and it limits recovery to pecuniary loss. The general maritime claim here alleged that Torregano had been killed as a result of the unseaworthiness of the vessel. It would be inconsistent with our place in the constitutional scheme were we to sanction more expansive remedies in a judicially created cause of action in which liability is without fault than Congress has allowed in cases of *33 death resulting from negligence. We must conclude that there is no recovery for loss of society in a general maritime action for the wrongful death of a Jones Act seaman.
Our decision also remedies an anomaly we created in Hig-ginbotham. Respondents in that case warned that the elimination of loss of society damages for wrongful deaths on the high seas would create an unwarranted inconsistency between deaths in territorial waters, where loss of society was available under Gaudet, and deaths on the high seas. We recognized the value of uniformity, but concluded that a concern for consistency could not override the statute. Higgin-botham, supra, at 624. Today we restore a uniform rule applicable to all actions for the wrongful death of a seaman, whether under DOHSA, the Jones Act, or general maritime law.
V
We next must decide whether, in a general maritime action surviving the death of a seaman, the estate can recover decedent’s lost future earnings. Under traditional maritime law, as under common law, there is no right of survival; a seaman’s personal cause of action does not survive the seaman’s death.
Cortes
v.
Baltimore Insular Line, Inc.,
Congress and the States have changed the rule in many instances. The Jones Act, through its incorporation of FELA, provides that a seaman’s right of action for injuries due to negligence survives to the seaman’s personal representative. See 45 U. S. C. § 59;
Gillespie, supra,
at 157. Most States have survival statutes applicable to tort actions generally, see 1 S. Speiser, Recovery for Wrongful Death 2d §3.2 (1975 and Supp. 1989), 2
id.,
§§14.1, 14.3, App. A, and admiralty courts have applied these state statutes in many instances to preserve suits for injury at sea. See,
e. g., Just
v.
Chambers,
Several Courts of Appeals have relied on
Moragne
to hold that there is a general maritime right of survival. See
Spiller
v.
Thomas M. Lowe, Jr., & Assocs., Inc.,
Miles argues that we should follow the Courts of Appeals and recognize a general maritime survival right. Apex urges us to reaffirm the traditional maritime rule and overrule these decisions. We decline to address the issue, because its resolution is unnecessary to our decision on the narrow question presented: whether the income decedent would have earned but for his death is recoverable. We hold that it is not.
*35
Recovery of lost future income in a survival suit will, in many instances, be duplicative of recovery by dependents for loss of support in a wrongful death action; the support dependents lose as a result of a seaman’s death would have come from the seaman’s future earnings. Perhaps for this reason, there is little legislative support for such recovery in survival. In only a few States can an estate recover in a survival action for income decedent would have received but for death.
3
At the federal level, DOHSA contains no survival provision. The Jones Act incorporates FELA’s survival provision, but, as in most States, recovery is limited to losses suffered during the decedent’s lifetime. See 45 U. S. C. §59;
Van Beeck
v.
Sabine Towing Co.,
This state and federal legislation hardly constitutes the kind of “wholesale” and “unanimous” policy judgment that prompted the Court to create a new cause of action in Moragne. See Moragne, supra, at 388, 389. To the contrary, the considered judgment of a large majority of American legislatures is that lost future income is not recoverable in a survival action. Were we to recognize a right to such recovery under maritime law, we would be adopting a distinctly minority view.
This fact alone would not necessarily deter us, if recovery of lost future income were more consistent with the general principles of maritime tort law. There are indeed strong
*36
policy arguments for allowing such recovery. See,
e. g.,
R. Posner, Economic Analysis of Law 176-181 (3d ed. 1986) (recovery of lost future income provides efficient incentives to take care by ensuring that the tortfeasor will have to bear the total cost of the victim’s injury or death). Moreover, Miles reminds us that admiralty courts have always shown a special solicitude for the welfare of seamen and their families. “[Cjertainly it better becomes the humane and liberal character of proceedings in admiralty to give than to withhold the remedy.”
Moragne, supra,
at 387, quoting Chief Justice Chase in
The Sea Gull,
We are not unmindful of these principles, but they are insufficient in this case. We sail in occupied waters. Maritime tort law is now dominated by federal statute, and we are not free to expand remedies at will simply because it might work to the benefit of seamen and those dependent upon them. Congress has placed limits on recovery in survival actions that we cannot exceed. Because this case involves the death of a seaman, we must look to the Jones Act.
The Jones Act/FELA survival provision limits recovery to losses suffered during the decedent’s lifetime. See 45 U. S. C. §59. This was the established rule under FELA when Congress passed the Jones Act, incorporating FELA, see St. Louis, I. M. & S. R. Co., supra, at 658, and it is the rule under the Jones Act. See Van Beech, supra, at 347. Congress has limited the survival right for seamen’s injuries resulting from negligence. As with loss of society in wrongful death actions, this forecloses more expansive remedies in a general maritime action founded on strict liability. We will not create, under our admiralty powers, a remedy that is disfavored by a clear majority of the States and that goes well beyond the limits of Congress’ ordered system of recovery for seamen’s injury and death. Because Torregano’s estate cannot recover for his lost future income under the Jones Act, it cannot do so under general maritime law.
*37 >
Cognizant of the constitutional relationship between the courts and Congress, we today act in accordance with the uniform plan of maritime tort law Congress created in DOHSA and the Jones Act. We hold that there is a general maritime cause of action for the wrongful death of a seaman, but that damages recoverable in such an action do not include loss of society. We also hold that a general maritime survival action cannot include recovery for decedent’s lost future earnings. Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is
Affirmed.
Justice Souter took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.
Notes
As with
Moragne,
the 1972 amendments to LHWCA have rendered
Gaudet
inapplicable on its facts. See
supra,
at 28; 33 U. S. C. § 905(b). Suit in
Gaudet
was filed before 1972.
Gaudet
v.
Sea-Land Services, Inc.,
In
Offshore Logistics, Inc.
v.
Tallentire,
See Mich. Comp. Laws §§600.2921, 600.2922 (1986);
Olivier
v.
Houghton County St. R. Co.,