You are both sort of correct. A foreign built ship can be us flagged, it just isn’t eligible for Jones act trade. I am a US Merchant Mariner who has worked on a

You are both sort of correct. A foreign built ship can be us flagged, it just isn’t eligible for Jones act trade. I am a US Merchant Mariner who has worked on a US flagged, Australian built ship in Asia. There aware other considerations besides just cabotage laws about where one might want to flag one’s vessel. The one thing I never understood was why everyone gets bent out of shape over shipping rules but don’t consider or care about airline cabotage.