Merchant Shipping (Mercantile Marine Fund) Act 1898

Rules

(1) A ship shall not in any year be required to make payments on account of light dues—

(a) if the ship is a home-trade ship, for more than ten voyages; and

(b) if the ship is a foreign-going ship, for more than six voyages; and

(c) if the ship makes voyages during the year both as a home-trade and as a foreign-going ship, for more than ten voyages, counting each voyage made as a foreign-going ship as a voyage and a half.

Provided that no steamer shall be required to pay more than one shilling and fourpence halfpenny per ton, and that no sailing vessel shall be required to pay more than one shilling and a penny halfpenny per ton in any year.

(2) A ship shall not pay dues both as a home-trade ship and as a foreign-going ship for the same voyage, but a ship trading from a port outside home-trade limits, and discharging cargo or landing passengers or mails at any port within home-trade limits, shall be deemed to be on one voyage as a foreign-going ship, until she has arrived at the last port of discharge of cargo or passengers brought from beyond home-trade limits; and a ship trading to a port outside home-trade limits, and loading cargo or receiving passengers or mails at any port within home trade limits, shall be deemed to be on one voyage as a foreign-going ship from the time she starts from the first port of loading of cargo or passengers destined for a port beyond home-trade limits.

(3) The voyage of a home-trade ship shall be reckoned from port to port, but a home-trade ship shall not be required to pay dues for more than three voyages in one month.

(4) The voyage of a foreign-going ship trading outwards shall be reckoned from the first port of lading in the United Kingdom or the Isle of Man of cargo destined for a port outside home-trade limits.

(5) The voyage of a foreign-going ship trading inwards shall be reckoned from her last port of lading outside home-trade limits to the last port in the United Kingdom or the Isle of Man at which any cargo laden outside those limits is discharged.

(6) Dues payable per voyage under this Act shall be payable and collected only at ports where a ship loads or discharges cargo or passengers or mails.

(7) The annual payments shall be payable at the commencement of the year in respect of which they are made, provided that a new vessel shall pay only one penny per ton for each month after the commencement of her first voyage till the first of April following.

(8) For the purposes of these rules—

(a) A ship's tonnage shall be reckoned as under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, for dues payable on a ship's tonnage, with the addition required in section eighty-five of that Act with respect to deck cargo, or in the case of an unregistered vessel in accordance with the Thames measurement adopted by Lloyd's Register.

(b) A year shall be reckoned from the day of the month on which this Act commences.