[archy]

Admiralty law rarely has anything to do with martial law, but mostly has to do with what happens when a ship is damaged or a cargo is screwed up.

And formerly was confined to domestic American matters involving states which had coastal areas, but more recently, has been *reinterpreted* by the federal courts to include and states which have a federal waterway [river] as a boundary of that state, or adjoining any other "Federal Waterway". The Lake of the Ozarks, for instance....

[colorado tanker]

Yep. Reminds me of the project dreamed up by some easterners in the 19th Century to run riverboats up the South Platte to Denver - until they found out that in places the South Platte is about a half mile wide and a foot deep. So, the Rocky Mountain Navy is pretty small. :)

[Lurking Libertarian]

And formerly was confined to domestic American matters involving states which had coastal areas, but more recently, has been *reinterpreted* by the federal courts to include and states which have a federal waterway [river] as a boundary of that state, or adjoining any other "Federal Waterway". The Lake of the Ozarks, for instance....

At least since the time the Constitution was ratified (actually, I think the rule goes back to colonial times), federal admiralty jurisdiction has extended to all "navigable waters," which certainly included lakes and rivers. This is not a recent reinterpretation.