Merchant Shipping (Safety and Load Line Conventions) Act 1932

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).