Merchant Shipping (Load Lines) Act, 1968

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Interpretation.

1.—(1) In this Act, except in so far as the context otherwise requires—

“alteration” includes deterioration;

“clearance” includes a transire;

“the Convention of 1966” means the International Convention on Load Lines signed in London on the 5th day of April, 1966;

“Convention country” and “Contracting Government” have the meanings assigned to them by section 30 (2) of this Act;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Transport and Power;

“parent country”, in relation to a ship, means the country or territory in which the ship is registered, or, if the ship is not registered anywhere, means the country or territory whose flag the ship flies;

“registered ship” means a ship registered under the Mercantile Marine Act, 1955 ;

“valid Convention certificate” has the meaning assigned to it by section 13 (5) of this Act.

(2) In this Act, subject to the next following subsection, “international voyage” means a voyage between—

(a) a port in the State and a port outside the State, or

(b) a port in a Convention country (other than the State) and a port in any other country or territory (whether a Convention country or not) which is outside the State.

(3) In determining, for the purposes of the last preceding subsection, what are the ports between which a voyage is made, no account shall be taken of any deviation by a ship from her intended voyage which is due solely to stress of weather or any other circumstance which neither the master nor the owner nor the charterer (if any) of the ship could have prevented or forestalled; and for the purposes of that subsection any colony, protectorate or other dependency, any territory for whose international relations a Government is separately responsible, and any territory for which the United Nations are the administering authority, shall be taken to be a separate territory.

(4) In this Act “new ship” means a ship whose keel is laid, or which is at a similar stage of construction, on or after the material date, and “existing ship” means a ship which is not a new ship; and for the purposes of this subsection the material date—

(a) in relation to a ship whose parent country is a Convention country other than the State, is the date as from which it is declared under section 30 of this Act either that the Government of that country has accepted or acceded to the Convention of 1966 or that it is a territory to which that Convention extends, and

(b) in relation to any other ship, is the date of the commencement of this Act.

(5) Any reference in this Act to the gross tonnage of a ship shall be construed as a reference to the tonnage of the ship as ascertained in accordance with the tonnage regulations of the Mercantile Marine Act, 1955 ; and, where in accordance with those regulations alternative tonnages are assigned to a ship, the gross tonnage of the ship shall, for the purposes of this Act, be taken to be the larger of those tonnages.

(6) For the purposes of this Act the length of a ship shall be ascertained in accordance with regulations made by the Minister under this Act.

(7) Any reference in this Act to any provision of the Convention of 1966 shall, in relation to any time after that provision has been amended in pursuance of Article 29 of that Convention, be construed as a reference to that provision as so amended.

(8) Except in so far as the context otherwise requires, any reference in this Act to an enactment shall be construed as a reference to that enactment as amended or extended by or under any other enactment.