Merchant Shipping (Safety and Load Line Conventions) Act 1932

Construction and Surveys.

1 Construction and survey regulations to implement Chapter II of Safety Convention.

(1) The construction regulations applicable to passenger steamers plying on international voyages shall include such requirements as appear to the Board of Trade to implement the provisions relating to construction, machinery, equipment and marking of load lines which are contained in Chapter II of the Safety Convention and the Regulations referred to therein (except in so far as the said provisions are otherwise implemented by the Merchant Shipping Acts):

Provided that—

(a) the Board may treat any passenger steamer constructed before the first day of July, nineteen hundred and thirty-one, (not being a steamer converted to passenger service on or after that date) as complying with any such requirement, if the Board are satisfied that such steps, if any, as are reasonable and practicable have been taken to make the steamer comply with that requirement;

(b) the Board may, as respects passenger steamers plying on any international coasting voyage, modify any such requirement, if and to the extent that they are satisfied that the risks incurred by passenger steamers plying on that voyage are such as to make it unreasonable or unnecessary to require steamers so plying to comply with that requirement;

(c) the Board may, as respects steamers for the time being engaged in any passenger trade in which they are employed in the carriage of large numbers of unberthed passengers, modify any such requirement, if they are satisfied that compliance with that requirement by steamers so engaged is impracticable and to the extent that they are satisfied that modifications are required by the conditions of the trade; and

(d) the Board may, as respects any steamer plying on short international voyages, modify any of the requirements of the construction regulations which implement the provisions of the Safety Convention contained in Regulations IX, X, XV and XIX thereof, if and to the extent that the Board are satisfied that that requirement is neither reasonable nor practicable in the case of that steamer.

(2) If it appears to the Board of Trade—

(a) that passenger steamers plying on any international voyage incur exceptional risks owing to weather and traffic conditions; and

(b) that owing to the small proportion of space allotted to cargo in any steamer constructed after the thirtieth day of June, nineteen hundred and thirty-one, or converted to passenger service after that date, the steamer can be sub-divided to a greater extent than is required by the Safety Convention;

the Board shall direct a ship surveyor to satisfy himself, before stating in a declaration of survey that the steamer is fit to ply on that voyage, that the steamer is subdivided to such greater extent as appears to the Board to be practicable and expedient in the interest of safety.

(3) The survey regulations applicable to passenger steamers plying on international voyages shall include such requirements as appear to the Board of Trade to implement the provisions relating to surveys which are contained in Chapter II of the Safety Convention and the Regulations referred to therein (except in so far as the said provisions are otherwise implemented by the Merchant Shipping Acts).

2 Amendments as to declarations of survey.

(1) A declaration of survey made by a ship surveyor in respect of a passenger steamer shall, instead of stating the particulars required by paragraph (d) of subsection (3) of section two hundred and seventy-two of the principal Act, state the voyages or class of voyages on which, as regards construction and equipment, the steamer is in the surveyor's judgment fit to ply.

(2) A declaration of survey made by an engineer surveyor in respect of a passenger steamer shall, instead of stating the particulars required by paragraph (e) of subsection (4) of the said section, state the voyages or class of voyages on which, as regards machinery, the steamer is in the surveyor's judgment fit to ply.

(3) If in the judgment of any such surveyor a passenger steamer is fit to ply on international voyages while engaged in a special passenger trade only, his declaration of survey snail state that fact.

3 Alteration of ships and additional surveys.

(1) The owner or master of a passenger steamer to which this section applies shall, as soon as possible after any alteration is made in the steamer's hull, equipments or machinery which affects the efficiency thereof or the seaworthiness of the steamer, give written notice to the Board of Trade containing full particulars of the alteration, and, if notice is not so given, the owner or master of the steamer shall for each offence be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds.

(2) If the Board of Trade have reason to believe that since the making of the last declaration of survey in respect of a passenger steamer to which this section applies—

(a) any such alteration as aforesaid has been made in the hull, equipments or machinery of the steamer; or

(b) the hull, equipments or machinery of the steamer have sustained any injury or are otherwise insufficient;

the Board may, without prejudice to their powers under section two hundred and seventy-nine of the principal Act, require the steamer to be again surveyed to such extent as they think fit, and, if such requirement is not complied with, may cancel any certificate issued in respect of the steamer under section two hundred and seventy-four of the principal Act or under this Part of this Act.

(3) This section applies to every passenger steamer, whether British or foreign, in respect of which any such certificate as aforesaid is for the time being in force, and for the purpose of this section the expression " alteration" in relation to the hull, equipments or machinery of a steamer includes the renewal of any part thereof.