Merchant Shipping Act 1894

Protection of Seamen from Imposition.

212 Assignment or sale of salvage invalid.

Subject to the provisions of this Act an assignment or sale of salvage payable to a seaman or apprentice to the sea service made prior to the accruing thereof shall not bind the person making the same ; and a power of attorney or authority for the receipt of any such salvage shall not be irrevocable.

213 No debt exceeding 5s. recoverable till end of voyage.

A debt exceeding in amount five shillings incurred by any seaman after he is engaged to serve shall not be recoverable until the service agreed for is concluded.

214 Seamen's lodging-houses.

(1) A local authority herein-after mentioned whose district includes a seaport may, with the approval of the Board of Trade, make byelaws relating to seamen's lodging-houses in their district, and those byelaws shall be binding upon all persons keeping houses in which seamen are lodged and upon the owners thereof and persons employed therein.

(2) The byelaws shall- amongst other things provide for the licensing, inspection, and sanitary conditions of seamen's lodging-houses, for the publication of the fact of a house being licensed, for the due execution of the byelaws, for preventing the obstruction of persons engaged in securing that execution, for the preventing of persons not duly licensed holding themselves out as keeping or purporting to keep licensed houses, and for the exclusion from licensed houses of persons of improper character, and shall impose sufficient fines not exceeding fifty pounds for the breach of any byelaw.

(3) The byelaws shall come into force from a date therein named, and shall be published in the London Gazette and in one newspaper at the least circulating in the district, and designated by the Board of Trade.

(4) If the local authority do not within a time in each case named by the Board of Trade make, revoke, or alter, any byelaws under this section, the Board of Trade may do so.

(5) Whenever Her Majesty in Council orders that in any district or any part thereof none but persons duly licensed in pursuance of byelaws under this section shall keep seamen's lodging-houses or let lodgings to seamen from a date therein named, a person acting in contravention of that order shall for each offence be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds.

(6) A local authority may defray all expenses incurred in the execution of this section out of any funds at their disposal as sanitary authority, and fines recovered for a contravention of this section or of any byelaw under this section shall be paid to such authority and added to those funds.

(7) In this section the expression " local authority " means in the administrative county of London the county council, and elsewhere in England the local authority under the Public Health Acts, and in Scotland the local authority under the [30 & 31 Vict. c. 101.] Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1867, and the Acts amending the same, and in Ireland the local authority under the [41 & 42 Vict. c. 52.] Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878, and the expression " district " means the area under the authority of such local authority.

215 Penalty for overcharges by lodging-house keepers.

If a person demands or receives from a seaman or apprentice to the sea service payment in respect of his board or lodging in the house of that person for a longer period than the seaman or apprentice has actually resided or boarded therein, that person shall for each offence be liable to a fine not exceeding ten pounds.

216 Penalty for detaining seamen's effects.

(1) If a person receives or takes into his possession or under his control any money or effects of a seaman or apprentice to the sea service, and does not return the same or pay the value thereof, when required by the seaman or apprentice, subject to such deduction as may be justly due to him from the seaman or apprentice in respect of board or lodging or otherwise, or absconds therewith, he shall for each offence be liable to a fine not exceeding ten pounds.

(2) A court of summary jurisdiction may, besides inflicting a fine, by summary order direct the amount of the money, or the value of the effects, subject to such deduction as aforesaid (if any), or the effects themselves, to be forthwith paid or delivered to the seaman or apprentice.

217 Penalty for solicitations by lodging-house keepers.

If within twenty-four hours after the arrival of a ship at a port in the United Kingdom, a person then being on board the ship solicits a seaman to become a lodger at the house of a person letting lodgings for hire, or takes out of the ship any effects of a seaman, except under the personal direction of the seaman, and with the permission of the master, he shall for each offence be liable to a fine not exceeding five pounds.

218 Penalty for being on board ship without permission before seamen leave.

Where a ship is about to arrive, is arriving, or has arrived at the end of her voyage, and any person, not being in Her Majesty's service or not being duly authorised by law for the purpose,—

(a) goes on board the ship, without the permission of the master, before the seamen lawfully leave the ship at the end of their engagement, or are discharged (whichever last happens); or,

(b) being on board the ship, remains there after being warned to leave by the master, or by a police officer, or by any officer of the Board of Trade or of the customs,

that person shall for each offence be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds, or, at the discretion of the court, to imprisonment for any term not exceeding six months; and the master of the ship or any officer of the Board of Trade may take him into custody, and deliver him up forthwith to a constable to be taken before a court capable of taking cognizance of the offence.

219 Application of provisions of previous section to foreign ships.

Whenever it is made to appear to Her Majesty that the Government of a foreign country—

(a) has provided that unauthorised persons going on board British ships which are about to arrive or have arrived within its territorial jurisdiction shall be subject to provisions similar to those of the last preceding section which are applicable to persons going on board British ships at the end of their voyages; and

(b) is desirous that the provisions of the said section shall apply to unauthorised persons going on board ships of that foreign country within British territorial jurisdiction,

Her Majesty in Council may order that those provisions shall apply to the ships of that foreign country, and have effect as if the ships of that country arriving, about to arrive, or having arrived at the end of their voyage, were British ships.