Merchant Shipping (Safety and Load Line Conventions) Act 1932

43 Marking of deck-line and load lines.

(1) No British load line ship registered in the United Kingdom, being a ship constructed after the thirtieth day of June, nineteen hundred and thirty-two, shall proceed to sea unless—

(a) the ship has been surveyed in accordance with the load line rules; and

(b) the ship complies with the conditions of assignment ; and

(c) the ship is marked on each side with a mark (hereafter in this Act referred to as a " deck-line ") indicating the position of the uppermost complete deck as defined by the load line rules, and with marks (hereafter in this Act referred to as " load lines ") indicating the several maximum depths to which the ship can be safely loaded in various circumstances prescribed by the load line rules; and

(d) the deck-line and load lines are of the description required by the load line rules, the deck-line is in the position required by those rules, and the load lines are of the number required by such of those rules as are applicable to the ship; and

(e) the load lines are in the position required by such of the load line rules as are applicable to the ship.

(2) No British load line ship registered in the United Kingdom, being a ship constructed before the first day of July, nineteen hundred and thirty-two, shall proceed to sea unless—

(a) the ship has been surveyed and marked in accordance with paragraphs (a), (c) and (d) of the last foregoing subsection; and

(b) the ship complies with the conditions of assignment in principle and also in detail, so far as, in the opinion of the Board of Trade, is reasonable and practicable having regard to the efficiency of the protection of openings, the guard rails, the freeing ports and the means of access to the crew's quarters provided by the arrangements, fittings and appliances existing on the ship at the time when she is first surveyed under this section; and

(c) the load lines are either in the position required by paragraph (e) of the last foregoing sub-section or in the position required by the tables used by the Board of Trade on the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and six, for fixing the position of load lines, subject to such modifications of those tables and of the application thereof, approved by the Board of Trade under section four hundred and thirty-eight of the principal Act, as were in force immediately before the fifth day of July, nineteen hundred and thirty.

(3) If any ship proceeds or attempts to proceed to sea in contravention of this section, the master or owner thereof shall for each offence be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds.

(4) Any ship attempting to proceed to sea without being surveyed and marked as required by this section may be detained until she has been so surveyed and marked, and any ship which does not comply with the conditions of assignment to the extent required in her case by this section shall be deemed to be unsafe for the purpose of section four hundred and fifty-nine of the principal Act.