Merchant Shipping Act 1894

304 Steerage passengers stewards, cooks, and interpreters.

(1) Every emigrant ship, if carrying as many as one hundred steerage passengers, shall carry a steerage steward, who shall be a seafaring man, and rated in the ship's articles as steerage steward, and approved by the emigration officer at the port of clearance : he shall be employed in messing and serving out the provisions to the steerage passengers, and in assisting to maintain cleanliness, order, and good discipline among them, and shall not assist in any way in navigating or working the ship.

(2) Every emigrant ship carrying as many as one hundred steerage passengers shall also carry a steerage cook, and if carrying more than three hundred statute adults two steerage cooks, who shall be seafaring men, and be rated and approved as in the case of steerage stewards, and shall be employed in cooking the food of the steerage passengers.

(3) In every such ship a convenient place for cooking shall be set apart on deck, and a sufficient cooking apparatus, properly covered in and arranged, shall be provided, to the satisfaction of the emigration officer at the port of clearance, together with a proper supply of fuel adequate, in his opinion, for the intended voyage.

(4) Every foreign emigrant ship in which as many as one half of the steerage passengers are British subjects, shall, unless the master and officers or not less than three of them understand and speak intelligibly the English language, carry, if the number of steerage passengers does not exceed two hundred and fifty, one person, and if it exceeds two hundred and fifty, two persons, who understand and speak intelligibly the language spoken by the master and crew and also the English language: those persons shall act as interpreters, and be employed exclusively in attendance on the steerage passengers, and not in working the ship; and any such ship shall not clear outwards or proceed to sea without having such interpreter on board.

(5) If any requirement of this section is not complied with in the case of any emigrant ship, the master of the ship shall for each offence be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.