Merchant Shipping Act 1894

246 Establishment and control of mercantile marine offices.

(1) A mercantile marine office, with the requisite buildings, property, superintendents, deputies, clerks, and servants shall be maintained at every port of the United Kingdom where there is a local marine board, and may be established and maintained at such other ports as the Board of Trade determine.

(2) In every port where there is a local marine board the board shall procure the said buildings and property, and appoint and remove the superintendents, deputies, clerks, and servants, and regulate the business at, and have the control of, the mercantile marine office, subject as follows :—

(a) The sanction of the Board of Trade shall be necessary, so far as regards the number of persons to be so appointed, and the amount of their salaries and wages, and all other expenses.

(b) The Board of Trade shall have the immediate control of every such office, as far as regards the receipt and payment of money thereat, and every person appointed to be an officer in any such office shall, before entering upon his duties, give such security (if any) for the due performance thereof as the Board of Trade require.

(c) If the Board of Trade have reason to believe that any superintendent, deputy, clerk, or servant appointed by a local marine board does not properly discharge his duties, they may cause the case to be investigated, and if they think fit remove him from his office, and provide for the proper performance of his duties until another person is duly appointed in his place.

(d) The Board of Trade may appoint any superintendent of or other person connected with any sailors home in the port of London to be a superintendent with any necessary deputies clerks and servants, and may appoint an office in any such home to be a mercantile marine office, and all persons and offices so appointed shall be subject to the immediate control of the Board of Trade, and not of the local marine board of the port.

(3) At any port at which the business of a mercantile marine office is conducted otherwise than under a local marine beard, the Board of Trade may—

(a) at any time establish a mercantile marine office and for that purpose procure the requisite buildings and property, and appoint and remove all the requisite superintendents, deputies, clerks, and servants, or

(b) direct with the consent of the Commissioners of Customs, that the whole or any part of the business of a mercantile marine office shall be conducted at the custom house, and thereupon the custom house shall be a mercantile marine office for the purposes of that business, and any officer of customs there appointed in that behalf by the Board of Trade shall be a superintendent or deputy within the meaning of this Act.