Before signing the agreement required by section 10502 of this title, a seaman required by section 8701 of this title to have a merchant mariner’s document shall exhibit to the master a document issued to the seaman and appropriately endorsed for the capacity in which the seaman is to serve.

(Pub. L. 98–89, Aug. 26, 1983, 97 Stat. 570.)

Under section 10503 seamen who are required to have a merchant mariner’s document must exhibit it before signing a shipping agreement on a coastwise voyage.