the Board of Trade to the owner, agent, or master of the ship in respect of which it has been granted, that the Board of Trade have cancelled the certificate. (4.) If a ship in respect of which a safety certificate has been granted is absent from the United Kingdom at the time when the certificate expires, the Board of Trade, or any person authorized by them for the purpose, may, if it appears proper and reasonable so to do, grant such an extension of the certificate as will allow the ship to complete the return voyage to the United Kingdom, but no such extension shall have effect for a period exceeding five months from the date of the expiration of the certificate. (5.) Sections 276, 277, 279, 280, 281, and 282 of the Principal Act (which in connection with passenger steamer certificates relate to the transmission of a certificate, fees for a certificate, the cancellation, delivery up, posting up, and penalties for the forgery of, a certificate) shall apply with respect to a safety certificate as they apply with respect to a passenger steamer's certificate, with the substitution of the report of the surveyor or inspector under this section for the declaration of survey. 20.-(1.) The Postmaster-General (and the Board of Trade, if they desire to do so for any special purposes in connection with wireless telegraphy on board a ship) may appoint officers (in this Act referred to as wireless telegraphy inspectors) for the purpose of inspecting ships with a view to ascertaining whether the requirements of this Act relating to wireless telegraphy are complied with on board any ship. (2.) A wireless telegraphy inspector, for the purpose of reporting with respect to the granting of a safety certificate under this Act, or for the purpose of ascertaining whether the provisions of this Act as to wireless telegraphy installation and wireless telegraphy operators are complied with on board any ship, may go on board any ship at all reasonable times, and do all things necessary for the proper inspection of the installation on the ship, and may also require the master of the ship to supply him with any information which it is in the power of the master to supply with respect to the provision on the ship of operators or watchers, and require the production of any certificate granted under this Act in respect of the installation, and of the certificates of the operators and watchers on the ship. (3.) If the master of the ship refuses or fails to supply information in accordance with this section, he shall be liable to a fine not exceeding 201., and if any person impedes any such inspector in the performance of his duties under this Act, or having the custody of a certificate the production of which may be required under this section fails to produce it when the production is so required, that person shall be liable to a fine not exceeding 201. 21. Where a safety certificate has been granted in respect of a ship and is in force, any of the provisions of this Act or * Vol. LXXXVI, page 741. the rules made thereunder relating to the manning, construction, or equipment of the ship, or the provision of wireless telegraphy and wireless telegraphy operators and watchers on the ship, which are applicable to the ship, shall be deemed to have been complied with unless it appears that the ship cannot proceed to sea without danger to the passengers or crew, owing to the fact that the actual condition of the ship does not correspond in substantial particulars with the certificate. 22. (1.) The report of a surveyor for the purposes of a safety certificate under this Act shall, as to the matters contained therein, have the same effect for the purpose of the passenger steamer's certificate as the declaration of a surveyor under section 272 of the Principal Act,* and shall contain not only the particulars required for a safety certificate, but also, in the case of a passenger steamer requiring a passenger steamer's certificate, any particulars required for the purpose of a passenger steamer's certificate. (2.) Where a ship has a safety certificate, the passenger steamer's certificate need only state matters which are required to be stated in the passenger steamer's certificate, but not required to be stated in the safety certificate. (3.) An emigrant ship, in respect of which a safety certificate is in force, shall be exempted from section 289 of the Principal Act* in the same manner as an emigrant ship in respect of which a passenger steamer's certificate is in force. PART V.-Application of Act to Foreign Ships and to British Ships not Registered in the United Kingdom. 23. (1.) Compliance with the provisions of Parts II and III, relating to the manning, construction, or equipment of passenger steamers, or relating to the provision of wireless telegraphy and wireless telegraph operators and watchers on a ship, and representing provisions of the Convention of this Act, shall be required in the case of a foreign ship or a British ship not registered in the United Kingdom which comes into or proceeds to sea from a port in the United Kingdom, in the same manner as compliance with those provisions would be required if the ship were registered in the United Kingdom, and the provisions of this Act shall apply to such a ship accordingly. (2.) A safety certificate granted by or under the authority of the Government of the country to which a foreign ship, or a British ship not registered in the United Kingdom, belongs, and recognized by the Board of Trade as granted in accordance with and for the purposes of the Convention, shall have the same effect as regards that ship as a safety certificate granted under this Act has as respects a ship registered in the United Kingdom. (3.) A foreign ship, and a British ship not registered in the * Vol. LXXXVI, page 739, + Vol. LXXXVI, page 746. United Kingdom, coming into or proceeding to sea from a port in the United Kingdom (a.) Shall, if entitled to a total or partial exemption from the provisions of the Convention under a certificate of exemption recognized by the Board of Trade as granted in accordance with and for the purposes of the Convention, be exempted to the same extent from the corresponding provisions of this Act; and (b.) Shall, if on a voyage on which a British ship registered in the United Kingdom would be entitled to a total or partial exemption from the provisions of Parts II, III, or IV of this Act, be exempted to the same extent as a British ship registered in the United Kingdom would be exempted. 24. Any provisions of this Act, and of any rules made thereunder, which apply to the United Kingdom, or to ships registered in the United Kingdom, or to ports in the United Kingdom, shall apply to all British possessions other than those mentioned in the Fifth Schedule to this Act, and to ships registered in those possessions, and to ports in those possessions, as they apply to the United Kingdom, to ships registered in the United Kingdom, and to ports of the United Kingdom: Provided that (a.) His Majesty may, by Order in Council, except any British possession from the operation of the foregoing provision, if he thinks fit, having regard to the special circumstances of the possession, and may revoke any such Order; and (b.) His Majesty may, by Order in Council, if satisfied that the Legislature of any British possession to which this section. applies have by Act or Ordinance made proper provision for carrying out the Convention as respects that possession, direct that the foregoing provision shall cease to apply to that possession; and (c.) Such adaptations of the provisions of this Act and any rules thereunder made by Order in Council as may appear necessary to make those provisions or rules applicable in the British possession to which they apply by virtue of the foregoing provision; and (d.) The Secretary of State may postpone the operation of the foregoing provision as respects any possession until any date not later than the 1st day of July, 1915, if he is satisfied that it is expedient to do so, having regard to the special circumstances of the possession. 25. (1.) His Majesty may, by Order in Council, direct that this Act shall apply to any British Protectorate and to the Island of Cyprus in the same manner as it applies to British possessions other than those mentioned in the Fifth Schedule to this Act. (2.) His Majesty may, by Order in Council, direct that any provisions of this Act and of any rules made thereunder shall apply to ships registered in any port of registry outside Hist Majesty's dominions as they apply to ships registered in the United Kingdom, subject to any adaptations which may be made [1914. cvm.] D by Order in Council for the purpose of making these provisions applicable to ships registered in that port. PART VI.-General. 26. Nothing in this Act shall subject any ship which, not being bound to a port in the United Kingdom, has been compelled to take refuge in such a port by stress of weather or force majeure to any provisions of this Act from which the ship would have been exempt in the ordinary course of the ship's voyage. 27.-(1.) Any rules made for the purposes of this Act, and all rules made under section 427 of "The Merchant Shipping Act, 1894,"* after the commencement of this Act, for any purpose, shall be laid before each House of Parliament as soon as may be after they are made; and if an address is presented to His Majesty by either House of Parliament within the next subsequent forty days on which that House has sat next after any such rules were laid before it, praying that the rules be annulled, the rules shall forthwith be void, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder or to the making of any new rule. (2.) Before making any such rules, the Board of Trade shall give public notice of the draft of the proposed rules in such manner as they think best fitted for giving information to those concerned, and giving those concerned an opportunity of making representations to the Board with respect to the rules. (3.) Subsection (2) of section 427 of "The Merchant Shipping Act, 1894,"* is hereby repealed. 28. For the purposes of this Act, unless the context otherwise requires The time of the commencement of the construction of a ship shall be deemed to be the time at which the keel of the ship is laid; and similar expressions shall be construed accordingly; and The country to which ships registered in a British possession belong shall be deemed to be the British possession in which they are registered. 29.-(1.) Any provision of this Act shall, unless the context otherwise requires, be in addition to, and not in derogation of, any provision of the Merchant Shipping Acts or any other enactment relating to the same or similar matters. (2.) Any reference in this Act to any provision of "The Merchant Shipping Acts, 1894 to 1913," which has been amended by any subsequent Act, or is amended by this Act, shall be construed as a reference to the provision as so amended. (3.) In this Act the expression "the Principal Act'' means "The Merchant Shipping Act, 1894," and the expression * Vol. LXXXVI, page 801. "the Merchant Shipping Acts" means "The Merchant Shipping Acts, 1894 to 1913," and this Act. (4.) This Act may be cited as "The Merchant Shipping (Convention) Act, 1914," and shall be construed as one with the Principal Act, and "The Merchant Shipping Acts, 1894 to 1913," and this Act may be cited together as "The Merchant Shipping Acts, 1894 to 1914." (5.) This Act shall come into operation on the 1st day of July, 1915: Provided that His Majesty may, by Order in Council, from time to time postpone the coming into operation of this Act for such period not exceeding on any occasion of postponement one year, as may be specified in the Order. SCHEDULES. FIRST SCHEdule. International Convention on Safety of Life at Sea. [For text, see page 283.] SECOND SCHEDULE. PART I.-Wireless Distress Call. The following signal repeated at short intervals Wireless Danger Call. The following signal repeated at short intervals ten times at full power (TTT) the call to be followed after an interval of one minute by the message repeated three times at intervals of ten minutes. PART II.-Urgent and Important Signals. You are standing into danger.. I want assistance; remain by me Have encountered ice Your lights are out (or burning badly) The way is off my ship; you may feel your way past me Stop (or heave to); I have something important to communicate.. I am disabled; communicate with me |