Merchant Shipping Act 1995

2 (1) The Secretary of State shall make rules in accordance with the following provisions of this Schedule (referred to as “the load line rules”); and in making those rules the Secretary of State shall have regard in particular to the Convention of 1966.

(2) The load line rules shall make provision—

(a) for the surveying and periodical inspection of ships to which this Schedule applies;

(b) for determining freeboards to be assigned from time to time to such ships;

(c) for determining, in relation to any such ship, the deck which is to be taken to be the freeboard deck of the ship, and for requiring the position of that deck to be indicated on each side of the ship by a mark of a description prescribed by the rules; and

(d) for determining, by reference to that mark and the freeboards for the time being assigned to any such ship, the positions in which each side of the ship is to be marked with lines of a description prescribed by the rules, indicating the various maximum depths to which the ship may be loaded in circumstances prescribed by the rules.

(3) The load line rules shall include the following provisions—

(a) provisions specifying such requirements in respect of the hulls, superstructures, fittings and appliances of ships to which this Schedule applies as appear to the Secretary of State to be relevant to the assignment of freeboards to such ships;

(b) provisions whereby, at the time when freeboards are assigned to a ship in accordance with the load line rules, such particulars relating to those requirements as may be determined in accordance with the rules are to be recorded in such manner as may be so determined; and

(c) provisions for determining by reference to those requirements and that record whether, at any time after freeboards have been so assigned to a ship and while they continue to be so assigned, the ship is for the purposes of this Schedule to be taken to comply, or not to comply, with the conditions of assignment;

and those provisions shall be set out separately in the load line rules under the title of “rules as to conditions of assignment”.

(4) The load line rules shall also include provisions requiring such information relating to the stability of any ship to which freeboards are assigned thereunder, and such information relating to the loading and ballasting of any such ship, as may be determined in accordance with the rules to be provided for the guidance of the master of the ship in such manner as may be so determined.

(5) In relation to any matter authorised or required by this Schedule to be prescribed by the load line rules, those rules may make different provision by reference to (or to any combination of) any of the following, that is to say, different descriptions of ships, different areas, different seasons of the year and any other different circumstances.

(6) Except in so far as the context otherwise requires, in this Schedule “deck-line” means such a mark as is referred to in sub-paragraph (2)(c) above, and “load lines” means such lines as are referred to in sub-paragraph (2)(d) above.