The FBI is using the 1830s Steamboat Act to investigate the Baltimore Bridge disaster

Criminal investigators are examining whether the crew or companies behind the ship that crashed into a bridge in the port of Baltimore, killing six people, violated the seafarer’s manslaughter law The Wall Street Journal.

According to MarinerLaw.com, the Seaman’s Totslaughter Statute, passed in 1838, creates criminal liability for the negligence of sailors and ship owners or operators that results in the loss of life on United States waters.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s ongoing investigation focuses on the electrical system of the dali and electrical problems the ship experienced at dock powering refrigerated containers before setting sail from the port of Baltimore on the morning of March 26. The ship lost power and crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to collapse and crash. A crew of eight plunged into the freezing water on the bridge, killing six of them.

The modern Seaman’s Totslaughter Statute is codified as 18 USC 1115. It says:

“Any master, engineer, pilot or other person employed in any steamboat or vessel by whose misconduct, negligence or inattention to his duties on that vessel the life of any person is destroyed, and any owner, charterer, inspector or others .” A public official who destroys the life of any person through fraud, negligence, connivance, misconduct, or violation of law shall be liable under this title to a fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years, or to both.

If the owner or charterer of a steamboat or vessel is a corporation, each officer of such corporation shall for the time being be effectively entrusted with the control and management of the operation, equipment or navigation of such steamboat or vessel, who knowingly and who “Has willfully caused or permitted such fraud, negligence, connivance, misconduct, or violation of law which destroys the life of any person, shall be punished under this title by a fine or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years, or by both.”

The dali remains at the accident site, where authorities plan to use explosives to clear bridge wreckage that is holding the ship and blocking the shipping channel. Safety investigators are preparing a preliminary report on the accident.