Merchant Shipping Act 1906

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved


Merchant Shipping Act, 1906

(6 Edw. 7.) CHAPTER 48.

An Act to amend the Merchant Shipping Acts, 1894 to 1900.

[21st December 1906]

B E it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

I Provisions as to Relief and Repatriation of Distressed Seamen, and Seamen left behind Abroad.

Part I.

Safety.

Safety.

S-1 Application of British load-line provisions to foreign ships.

1 Application of British load-line provisions to foreign ships.

1. Sections four hundred and thirty-seven to four hundred and forty-three of the principal Act (which relate to load-line) except subsections (3) and (4) of section four hundred and forty, shall, after the appointed day, apply to all foreign ships while they are within any port in the United Kingdom, as they apply to British ships, without prejudice—

a ) to the power of His Majesty previously to apply those provisions to the ships of any foreign country, if the Government of that country so desire, under section seven hundred and thirty-four of the principal Act and
b ) to any direction of His Majesty in Council given under section four hundred and forty-five of the principal Act in the case of ships of any foreign country in which the regulations in force relating to overloading and improper loading are equally effective with the provisions of the principal Act
S-2 Detention of foreign ships when unsafe owing to defective equipment, &c.

2 Detention of foreign ships when unsafe owing to defective equipment, &c.

2. Section four hundred and sixty-two of the principal Act (which relates to the detention of foreign ships)—

(1) shall apply in the case of a ship which is unsafe by reason of the defective condition of her hull, equipments, or machinery, and accordingly that section shall be construed as if the words ‘by reason of the defective condition of her hull, equipments, or machinery, or’ were inserted before the words by ‘reason of overloading or improper loading’; and

(2) shall apply with respect to any foreign ships being at any port in the United Kingdom, whether those ships take on board any cargo at that port or not.

S-3 Loading of grain cargoes on foreign ships.

3 Loading of grain cargoes on foreign ships.

(1) After the first day of October one thousand nine hundred and seven, sections four hundred and fifty-two and four hundred and fifty-five of the principal Act shall apply to a foreign ship which loads a grain cargo in the United Kingdom so long as the ship is within a port in the United Kingdom.

(2) If, after the first day of October one thousand nine hundred and seven, a foreign ship laden with grain cargo arrives at any port in the United Kingdom, having the grain cargo so loaded that the master of the ship, if the ship were a British ship, would be liable to a penalty under the provisions of Part V. of the principal Act relating to the carriage of grain, the master of that foreign ship shall be liable to a fine not exceeding three hundred pounds.

(3) After the first day of October one thousand nine hundred and seven section four hundred and fifty-five of the principal Act shall apply to a foreign ship laden with grain which discharges all or any part of her cargo at any port in the United Kingdom so long as the ship is within a port in the United Kingdom.

(4) The provisions of section four hundred and fifty-four of the principal Act, so far as that section provides for the delivery of the notice mentioned therein to the proper officer of customs in the United Kingdom, shall apply to all foreign ships laden with grain cargo arriving at a port in the United Kingdom after the date aforesaid, and the master of the ship shall be liable accordingly.

S-4 Power to apply rules as to life-saving appliances to foreign ships in certain cases.

4 Power to apply rules as to life-saving appliances to foreign ships in certain cases.

4. Sections four hundred and twenty-seven to four hundred and thirty-one of the principal Act relating to life-saving appliances shall, after the appointed day, apply to all foreign ships while they are within any port of the United Kingdom as they apply to British ships:

Provided that His Majesty may by Order in Council direct that those provisions shall not apply to any ship of a foreign country in which the provisions in force relating to life-saving appliances appear to His Majesty to be as effective as the provisions of Part V. of the principal Act, on proof that those provisions are complied with in the case of that ship.

S-5 Appointed day.

5 Appointed day.

5. For the purposes of this Part of this Act the appointed day shall be the first day of January nineteen hundred and nine, or such other day not being more than twelve months later, as the Board of Trade may appoint; and different days may be appointed for different provisions of this Part of this Act, and for different foreign countries.

S-6 Saving for ship coming in under stress of weather, &c.

6 Saving for ship coming in under stress of weather, &c.

6. Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act shall affect any foreign ship not bound to a port of the United Kingdom which comes into any port of the United Kingdom for any purpose other than the purpose of embarking or landing passengers, or taking in or discharging cargo or taking in bunker coal.

S-7 Coasting steamships not to be exempt from load-line provisions.

7 Coasting steamships not to be exempt from load-line provisions.

7. The exemption of ships under eighty tons register employed solely in the coasting trade under sections four hundred and thirty-seven and four hundred and thirty-eight of the principal Act (which relate to the marking of deck lines and load-lines) shall cease so far as respects steamships:

Provided that the Board of Trade may except from the provisions of this section any class of steamships, so long as they do not carry cargo, and the provisions of this section shall not apply to any steamship belonging to any class so excepted.

S-8 Extension of provisions as to the time of marking load-line.

8 Extension of provisions as to the time of marking load-line.

(1) Section four hundred and forty of the principal Act (which relates to the time for marking load-lines) shall apply to all British foreign-going ships, and, so far as it is applied by this Act to foreign ships, to all foreign foreign-going ships, whether the owner is required to enter the ship outwards or not.

(2) In the case of a ship which the owner is not required to enter outwards—

(a ) the disc indicating the load-line shall be marked before clearance for the ship is demanded;

(b ) the master shall prepare a statement similar to that required to be inserted in the form of entry under subsection (2) of the said section four hundred and forty, and in the case of a British ship shall enter a copy of the statement in the agreement with the crew and in the official log-book, and subsections (3) and (4) of that section shall apply accordingly;

(c ) the master shall deliver a copy of the statement to the officer of customs from whom a clearance for the ship is demanded, and a clearance shall not be granted until the statement is so delivered.

(3) Where the certificate referred to in subsection (4) of section four hundred and forty-three of the principal Act (which relates to regulations as to load-line) is required to be delivered, the provisions of this section as to the statement to be prepared by the master shall not take effect.

(4) For the purpose of providing for an alteration of marks during a voyage, subsection (5) of section four hundred and forty of the principal Act shall be read as if the words ‘or, if the mark has been altered abroad in accordance with regulations made by the Board of Trade for the purpose, marked with the mark as so altered’ were added after the words ‘so marked,’ and subsection (2) of section four hundred and forty-three of the principal Act shall be read as if the purposes for which regulations may be made under that section included provision for the alteration of marks on ships abroad.

S-9 Entry in logbook of boat drill, &c.

9 Entry in logbook of boat drill, &c.

(1) The master of every British ship shall enter or cause to be entered in the official log-book, a statement, or if there is no official log-book, cause a record to be kept, of every occasion on which boat drill is practised on board the ship, and on which the life-saving appliances on board the ship have been examined for the purpose of seeing that those appliances are fit and ready for use.

(2) The master shall, if and when required by any officer of the Board of Trade, produce for inspection any record kept by him for the purposes of this section.

(3) If the master of a ship fails to comply with any requirement of this section, he shall be liable on summary conviction for each offence to a fine not exceeding ten pounds.

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