Section 11 declares that no marriage is valid unless solemnized by someone on its list
The operative words come first. Section 11 is titled “By whom a marriage must be solemnized,” and it begins: “No marriage shall be valid unless solemnized by either:”. Everything after that colon is the list, and nothing outside it works.
Subdivision 1 covers a clergyman or minister of any religion, and leaders of the Society for Ethical Culture, including the Ethical Culture Society of Long Island. Subdivision 2 covers executive and municipal officers: a current or former governor, a village mayor, a county executive, a city mayor or a city magistrate. Subdivision 2-a adds a state legislator, who may not charge a fee.
Subdivision 3 is the judges, from the federal circuit court of appeals for the Second Circuit to the justices and judges of the state unified court system. Subdivision 3-a covers tribal judges and designated tribal officials. Subdivision 3-b covers the one day marriage officiant under Section 11-D. Subdivision 4 recognizes a written contract of marriage acknowledged before a judge of a court of record. Subdivision 5 narrows the list where a party is under 18.
No captain appears in Section 11, and presuming to solemnize is a class A misdemeanor
We read the section end to end. No captain, master, mariner or vessel command category appears anywhere in subdivisions 1 through 5. A Merchant Mariner Credential is authority to move a vessel, and it confers nothing under Section 11.
The Department of Health does not leave this to inference. Its marriage license guidance, Publication 4210, states that ship captains are not authorized to perform marriage ceremonies in New York State.
Doing it anyway is a crime, and it belongs to the officiant. Penal Law Section 255.00 is titled “Unlawfully solemnizing a marriage.” A person is guilty when he performs a ceremony or presumes to solemnize a marriage, knowing that he is not authorized by the laws of this state to do so. That is a class A misdemeanor, and it is why careful operators decline to let their captains officiate.
Section 19-a asks a master to file a report within three days and gives him no power to marry
One place in New York marriage law mentions vessels, and it is a filing duty. Domestic Relations Law Section 19-a is titled “Marriages on vessels; reports and records.” It reaches the master, chief officer, ship’s surgeon, or the company or person controlling a vessel that arrives at the port of New York.
Within three days after that arrival, the master must report that marriage in writing to the city clerk of the city of New York. The duty covers any marriage of a city resident occurring aboard at sea, and a transcript of the log book entry goes with the report.
Read what it does and does not do. It contemplates a marriage already performed at sea under another jurisdiction’s law, aboard a ship whose flag state authorizes its master to marry. It confers no solemnization power and says nothing about who may officiate. It is the likeliest origin of the myth, and a captain who quotes it at you has misread it.
Section 25 forgives a missing license and does nothing about a missing officiant
Section 25 is titled “License, when to be obtained.” It provides that nothing in the article renders a marriage void by reason of a failure to procure a marriage license, where the parties are of full age. The saving clause is limited to the license, and the word “solemnized” inside it presupposes a valid solemnization under Section 11.
A New York court has answered this. In Ponorovskaya v. Stecklow, 45 Misc 3d 597 (Supreme Court, New York County, 2014), the court dismissed a divorce action because the parties had never validly married. The officiant was a dentist ordained online through the Universal Life Church. The court held that even if Section 25 applied, the marriage would still fail, because the officiant lacked authority.
Put the two failures in order. No license usually still leaves you married. No authorized officiant can leave you not married at all. That is the reverse of what most couples assume, and it is why the officiant question outranks everything else aboard. If you want an ordained captain under Section 11(1), Ponorovskaya is the reason to prefer a conventional ordination.
A one day marriage officiant license costs $25 and works anywhere in the state
Section 11-D exists to solve this problem. A town or city clerk shall issue a one day marriage officiant license upon request, from the same town or city clerk’s office as the couple to be married. The applicant must be eighteen or over, and need not be a resident of the town, the city, or the state. The fee is twenty five dollars.
The grant at the end of the section is what makes it right for a boat. A one day marriage officiant shall have the authority to solemnize a marriage anywhere in the state. So the captain applies at the clerk who issues your marriage license, and Section 11(3-b) then puts that person on the Section 11 list.
Section 11(6) strands a town marriage officer the moment the boat crosses a town line
Section 11(6) is the trap on the water. No marriage shall be solemnized by a public officer specified in the section outside the territorial jurisdiction in which he or she was elected, appointed or duly designated. An officer appointed within the city of New York may solemnize anywhere in that city, and the carve out stops at the city line.
Put the rule on a moving vessel. A Town of Babylon marriage officer has authority in Babylon. A boat that departs Babylon and holds the ceremony off Huntington has carried the officiant outside their jurisdiction, and the solemnization is arguably void. Section 11-C reads the same way for an appointed municipal marriage officer, who may act only within the appointing municipality, for up to $75 per ceremony.
Judges are the exception that travels. Section 11(6) expressly exempts federal district judges and the justices and judges of the state unified court system, among others. A judge may solemnize anywhere in the state, and so may a one day officiant under Section 11-D.
Three miles out, New York ends and wrongful death recovery narrows to pecuniary loss
Two federal statutes meet at the same distance from the beach. The Submerged Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. Section 1301, caps a state seaward boundary at three geographical miles into the Atlantic. The Department of Health says a New York State marriage license may be used within New York State only. Past that line the license sits outside its zone, and Section 11 authority does not clearly extend.
The second statute is sharper. The Death on the High Seas Act, 46 U.S.C. Section 30302, attaches when death is caused by wrongful act, neglect or default on the high seas beyond 3 nautical miles from the shore of the United States. Section 30303 then limits recovery to fair compensation for pecuniary loss. Loss of society, grief and companionship fall outside that measure.
Nobody publishes an answer to the marriage question. Neither the Department of Health nor any town clerk says how far offshore a New York license stays valid. If your ceremony must be offshore, call New York State Department of Health Vital Records at (855) 322-1022 and ask the issuing clerk too.
The practical conclusion is short. Stay in the bays. The Great South Bay, Peconic Bay, Shinnecock Bay, Moriches Bay, Oyster Bay, Huntington Bay and the New York half of Long Island Sound are unambiguously New York State, and both problems vanish there. The Connecticut boundary runs down the middle of the Sound, unmarked and invisible from the deck.
The whole problem costs $25 and one phone call to the town clerk
Here is the sequence. Buy the marriage license from a New York town or city clerk. At the same counter, have your officiant apply for the one day license under Section 11-D. Keep the ceremony inside New York waters.
Section 12 says no particular form or ceremony is required when a marriage is solemnized. The parties must solemnly declare, in the presence of the officiant and the attending witness, that they take each other as spouses. At least one witness besides the officiant must be present.
- Get the one day officiant license from the same clerk who issues your marriage license, because Section 11-D requires the same office.
- Pay the $25 and confirm the paperwork is in hand well before the sailing date.
- Hold the ceremony in a bay or close inshore, so neither the three mile line nor the Connecticut boundary is in play.
- Bring at least one witness besides the officiant, which is what Section 12 requires.
Sources: New York Domestic Relations Law Section 11 · New York Domestic Relations Law Section 11-C · New York Domestic Relations Law Section 11-D · New York Domestic Relations Law Section 12 · New York Domestic Relations Law Section 13 · New York Domestic Relations Law Section 19-a, Marriages on vessels; reports and records · New York Domestic Relations Law Section 25 · New York Penal Law Section 255.00, Unlawfully solemnizing a marriage · New York State Department of Health Publication 4210, Get Married in New York State · Ponorovskaya v. Stecklow, 2014 NY Slip Op 24140 · Submerged Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. Section 1301 · Death on the High Seas Act, 46 U.S.C. Sections 30302 and 30303
Read on 10 September 2026. Statutes and regulations change; confirm with the clerk or agency before you rely on this.
