Births and Deaths Registration Act 1874

37 Registration of births and deaths at sea

The provisions of this Act, save as is herein expressly provided, shall not apply to the registration of births and deaths on board a vessel at sea, with respect to which the following provisions shall have effect:

(1) The captain or master of or other person having the command or charge of a British ship shall, as soon as may be after the occurrence of the birth of a child or the death of a person on board such ship, record in his log book or otherwise the fact of such birth or death, and the particulars required by the fourth schedule to this Act to be registered concerning such birth or death, or such of them as may be known to him, and shall, (unless the ship is one of Her Majesty's ships,) upon the arrival of such ship at any port of the United Kingdom, or at such other time or place as the Board of Trade may from time to time with respect to any ship or class of ships direct, deliver or send, in such form and manner as the Board of Trade may from time to time direct, a return of the facts so recorded to the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen.

(2) Where a ship which is not a British ship carries passengers to or from any port of the United Kingdom as the port of destination or the port of departure of such ship, the provisions of this section shall apply to the captain or master of or other person having the command or charge of such ship, in like manner as if it were a British ship.

(3) Where the said return is directed by the Board of Trade (whether the ship is British or foreign) to be delivered upon the arrival of the ship, or the discharge of the crew, or otherwise, at any port or place out of the United Kingdom, the Board of Trade may, if they think fit, direct that the return instead of being delivered to the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen shall be delivered, and the same shall accordingly be delivered, if such port or place is within Her Majesty's dominions, to the shipping master or collector of customs at such port or place, and if it is a foreign port or place, to the principal British consular officer at the said foreign port or place, and such shipping master, collector, or officer shall send the same, as soon as may be, by post or otherwise, to the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen.

(4) Where it appears from any such return that the father of any child so born, or if the child is a, bastard the mother of such child, was a Scotch or Irish subject of Her Majesty, or that any person whose death is mentioned in such return was a Scotch or Irish subject of Her Majesty, the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen shall from time to time send a certified copy of so much of the return as relates to such birth or death to the Registrar General of Births and Deaths in Scotland or Ireland, as the case may require.

(5) The Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen shall from time to time send to the Registrar General of Births and Deaths in England a certified copy of every other such return, or of that part of every such return which is not so sent to the Registrar General of Births and Deaths in Scotland or Ireland.

(6) A captain of or other person having charge of one of Her Majesty's ships shall, upon the arrival of any such ship in any port of the United Kingdom, or at such other time as the Commissioners of the Admiralty may from time to time direct, deliver or send, in such manner and form as the said Commissioners may from time to time direct, a return of the facts recorded in pursuance of this section to that Registrar General of Births and Deaths to whom a copy of such return would, if the ship were a merchant ship, be sent under the provisions of this section by the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen. ,

(7) Every Registrar General of Births and Deaths to whom a copy of any return or a return is sent in pursuance of this section shall cause the same to be filed and preserved in or copied in a book to be kept by him for the purpose, and to be called a marine register book, and such book shall be deemed to be a certified copy of a register book within the meaning of the Acts relating to the registration of births and deaths in England, Scotland, and Ireland respectively.

(8) Every captain or master of or other person having charge of a ship who fails to comply with this section shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds for each Offence; and such penalty may be recovered in the same courts and places and in the like manner, and when recovered shall he applied in like manner, as a penalty under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854.

(9) This section shall extend to all places and persons within British jurisdiction.

(10) Terms in this section shall have the same meaning as in the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854.