Merchant Shipping (Safety and Load Line Conventions) Act 1932

53 Inspection and control of Convention ships not registered in United Kingdom.

(1) A ship surveyor or engineer surveyor may go on board any Load Line Convention ship not registered in the United Kingdom, when within any port in the United Kingdom, for the purpose of demanding the production of any load line certificate for the time being in force in respect of the ship.

(2) If a valid Load Line Convention certificate is produced to the surveyor on any such demand, the surveyor's powers of inspecting the ship with respect to load line shall be limited to seeing—

(a) that the ship is not loaded beyond the limits allowed by the certificate;

(b) that the position of the load fines on the ship corresponds with the position specified in the certificate;

(c) that no material alterations have taken place in the hull or superstructures of the ship which affect the position of the load lines;

(d) that the fittings and appliances for the protection of openings, the guard rails, the freeing ports and the means of access to the crew's quarters have been maintained on the ship in as effective a condition as they were in when the certificate was issued;

and for the purpose of any such inspection the surveyor shall have all the powers of a Board of Trade inspector under the principal Act.

(3) If it is found on any such inspection that the ship is loaded beyond the limits allowed by the certificate, the ship may be detained and proceedings may be taken against the master or owner thereof under the provisions hereafter contained in this Part of this Act relating to the submersion of load lines on ships not registered in the United Kingdom.

(4) If it is found on any such inspection that the load lines on the ship are not in the position specified in the certificate, the ship may be detained until the matter has been rectified to the satisfaction of the surveyor.

(5) If it is found on any such inspection that the ship has been so materially altered in respect of the matters referred to in paragraphs (c) and (d) of subsection (2) of this section that the ship is manifestly unfit to proceed to sea without danger to human life, the ship shall be deemed to be unsafe for the purpose of section four hundred and fifty-nine of the principal Act (in the case of a British ship) or for the purpose of section four hundred and sixty-two of that Act (in the case of a foreign ship):

Provided that where the ship has been detained under either of the last-mentioned sections, the Board of Trade shall order the ship to be released as soon as they are satisfied that the ship is fit to proceed to sea without danger to human life.

(6) If a valid Load Line Convention certificate is not produced to the surveyor on such demand as aforesaid, the surveyor shall have the same power of inspecting the ship, for the purpose of seeing that the provisions of this Part of this Act have been complied with, as if the ship were a British ship registered in the United Kingdom.

(7) For the purposes of this section a ship shall be deemed, to be loaded, beyond the limits allowed by the certificate if she is so loaded as to submerge in salt water, when the ship has no list, the appropriate load line on each side of the ship, that is to say, the load line appearing by the certificate to indicate the maximum depth to which the ship is for the time being entitled under the Load Line Convention to be loaded.