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A U.S. Jones Act waiver doesn't suspend an American's seaman's Jones Act rights, but it does change whether he's employed to exercise them. And beyond the headlines about oil prices lies an important question: when foreign vessels operate in the U.S. domestically, whose law DOES protect the crew?
The White House weighs a third extension before the Aug. 16 expiration. Here's what it could mean for Gulf Coast crews.

The Waiver That Will Not Weigh Anchor: The White House Weighs a Third U.S. Jones Act Extension - Herd Law Firm A century-old law reserving trade between American ports for American ships has been set aside three times this year, and a fourth decision is due within days. What is at stake is not only the price of a barrel of oil, but which body of law protects the crew standing on deck.

She's finally here!⚓
The Texas A&M Maritime Academy waited 21 years for a large training ship of its own — and last week in Philadelphia, a champagne bottle broke across the bow of the TS Lone Star State. She arrives in Galveston later this year.
She's got two training bridges AND engine rooms, a hospital, a helicopter deck, and room for 1,000 emergency responders when ememrgencies call her out.
Here's what she means for future Texas mariners — and what legal protections follow every cadet who steps aboard.

If You Build These Ships, We Will Crew Them: Texas A&M Maritime Academy Training Ship TS LONE STAR STATE Christened - Herd Law Firm Champagne on a bow is one of the few workplace rituals that still draws an exciting crowd. The one broken in Philadelphia last week ended a twenty-one-year wait for the Texas A&M Maritime Academy — and put a 524-foot federal asset on course for Galveston. On July 17, 2026, at the

Six months' pay for one month's work — if you're willing to sail through the Strait of Hormuz. Fifty-nine ships attacked since February, with two tankers burned there Monday.
A bonus is not a life preserver — and under the Jones Act, it is not a legal defense either. New post on hazard pay, the duty to warn, and why this reaches the Houston Ship Channel.

Six Months' Pay to Cross a Minefield? What the Law Says About Buying a Crew's Consent - Herd Law Firm A supertanker owner is offering crews six months' extra salary for a single month-long round trip through the Strait of Hormuz. Two tankers burned on Monday. A bonus is not a life preserver — and under U.S. maritime law, it is not a legal defense either. Every

The Houthis have declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia today and signaled the closure of Bab el-Mandeb — the "Gate of Tears" — the same strait Saudi crude has depended on since Hormuz shut. Americans are still holding strong, but what does American Maritime Law have to say? Read here.

The Fourth Arm of Defense: American Merchant Mariners Finally Receive Their Medals - Herd Law Firm On July 17, 2026, a civilian-crewed ship received the Presidential Unit Citation for the first time in the 77-year history of the Military Sealift Command. It is a long-overdue nod to the merchant mariners who move American power and cargo — and a useful reminder that the men and women who

The Houthis declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia today and signaled the closure of Bab el-Mandeb — the "Gate of Tears" — the same strait Saudi crude has depended on since Hormuz shut

The bypass and the blockade now share the same water, and mariners the middle may have no way out. Here's what U.S. maritime law has to say. 🚢

Blockaded Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Houthis Declare Bab el-Mandeb Strait Closed to Saudi Crude - Herd Law Firm Yemen’s Houthis have declared a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia and signaled the closure of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait — the very waterway the Kingdom has leaned on since the Strait of Hormuz slammed shut. With both chokepoints now contested at once, the crews caught in the middle are runnin...

Hurt on the water and handed papers to sign while you're still recovering? Read this first. A new federal appeals court decision shows how one line of fine print can decide whether your case goes before a judge and jury — or a private arbitrator, often before anyone weighs whether you were wronged. It can make ALL the difference! Here's what every Gulf Coast maritime worker should know. ⚓

Who Decides Who Decides? The Fifth Circuit’s Hill v. Jackson Offshore Decision and the Hidden Power of Arbitration Clauses - Herd Law Firm A single sentence in a post-injury arbitration agreement decided not whether an offshore seaman would win, but who would even be allowed to hear him. In Hill v. Jackson Offshore, the U.S. Fifth Circuit reminds mariners and their lawyers that in an arbitration fight, the most important question is

Galveston's own 1877 tall ship Elissa — the Official Tall Ship of Texas — led the world's great sailing vessels past the Statue of Liberty for America's 250th birthday. She was the oldest ship in the fleet, and the only one flying the Lone Star. 🤠
Forty years after her last trip to New York Harbor, she did exactly what she was built to do. Here's the story!

Lone Star Leading Them All: Galveston’s T/S Elissa Takes America’s 250th By Storm - Herd Law Firm For a Texas maritime lawyer, it is a rare pleasure to write about a ship not because someone was hurt, but because a piece of living history sailed north and did exactly what she was built to do — under wind, under canvas, under a trained hand. On the sunny morning

The Strait of Hormuz is open again, but the story isn't over. While thousands of seafarers remain stranded and Somali piracy surges, one shipowner has quietly made one of the year's biggest fortunes — moving oil on tankers running "dark," with their tracking systems switched off.
Our new post asks the question the headlines skip: who profits when crews are sent through a war zone in the dark, and what does the law say when one of them is hurt? A ship may run dark, but an owner's duty to her crew never does.

Dark Ship, Rich Cargo: The Profit in Running the Strait Dark - Herd Law Firm In the past, we covered how ships and crew have survived stranded in the Strait of Hormuz; some “running dark” with their transponders off, crews in constant danger of bombs, bullets, missiles and mines, hunted by foreign navies and pirates alike. But are the profits worth the risk? Now, the

Imagine a nuclear power plant built in a shipyard, towed out to sea, and moored off the coast to keep an island's lights on. It's not a hypothetical anymore — it's one of the fastest-moving ideas in offshore energy right now. ⚛
But new offshore work brings new risks. Who trains the workers? Whose law protects them when something goes wrong out on the water?
Our newest article looks at where floating nuclear power is headed — and why it matters for everyone who builds, tows, and works these waters.

Floating Nuclear Power: A New Offshore Energy Frontier? - Herd Law Firm Small modular reactors, shipyard construction, island energy security, and the maritime law questions that may follow. Floating nuclear power is emerging as one of the more significant new concepts in offshore energy. Once treated as a niche or experimental idea, floating nuclear power plants are re...

The headlines have moved on from the Strait of Hormuz. The crews haven't.
The ships are starting to move again, but roughly 8,000 seafarers are still stranded in the Strait — and a fresh surge of piracy off Somalia has made the way home more dangerous than the wait.
In Part 3 of our Hormuz series, "The Human Freight of the Hormuz Strait," we move from the economics to the people: crews who passed 120+ days at anchor, mariners taken captive by pirates, and the legal protections — the Maritime Labour Convention, the Jones Act, maintenance and cure, and the right to refuse unsafe passage — all of which protect U.S. mariners in a war-risk zone.
Because a ship can be sailed into a war zone, but a seaman's protections sail right along with the crew. Often, the most dangerous places are exactly where those rights matter most. 🌊

The Human Freight of the Hormuz Strait: The Crises and Crewmen Still Left Behind - Herd Law Firm The Strait of Hormuz is open again, but the interim peace has not reached everyone. Roughly 8,000 seafarers who kept the world’s fuel moving through a hundred-day war are still stranded in the Persian Gulf, and a fresh surge of piracy off Somalia has made the passage home more