Merchant Shipping (Load Lines) Act, 1968

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Submersion of load lines on registered ships.

5.—(1) Where a ship to which this Act applies, being a registered ship, is marked with load lines, the ship shall not be so loaded that—

(a) if the ship is in salt water and has no list, the appropriate load line on each side of the ship is submerged, or

(b) in any other case, the appropriate load line on each side of the ship would be submerged if the ship were in salt water and had no list.

(2) If any ship is loaded in contravention of the preceding subsection, the owner and master of the ship shall (subject to subsection (5) of this section) each be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds and on conviction on indictment—

(a) to a fine not exceeding four hundred pounds, and

(b) to such additional fine, not exceeding an amount calculated in accordance with the next following subsection, as the court thinks fit to impose, having regard to the extent to which the earning capacity of the ship was increased by reason of the contravention.

(3) Any additional fine imposed under subsection (2) (b) of this section shall not exceed four hundred pounds for every complete inch, and for any fraction of an inch over and above one or more complete inches, by which—

(a) in a case falling within subsection (1) (a) of this section, the appropriate load line on each side of the ship was submerged, or

(b) in a case falling within subsection (1) (b) of this section, the appropriate load line on each side of the ship would have been submerged as therein mentioned;

and, if the amount by which that load line was or would have been submerged was less than a complete inch, any such additional fine shall not exceed four hundred pounds.

(4) If the master of a ship takes the ship to sea when she is loaded in contravention of subsection (1) of this section, or if any other person, having reason to believe that the ship is so loaded, sends or is party to sending her to sea when she is loaded in contravention of that subsection, then (without prejudice to any fine to which he may be liable in respect of an offence under subsection (2) of this section) he shall be guilty of an offence under this subsection and liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds, and

(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine of such amount as the court may consider proper.

(5) Where a person is charged with an offence under subsection (2) of this section, it shall be a defence to prove that the contravention was due solely to deviation or delay and that the deviation or delay was caused solely by stress of weather or other circumstances which neither the master nor the owner nor the charterer (if any) could have prevented or forestalled.

(6) Without prejudice to any proceedings under the preceding provisions of this section, any ship which is loaded in contravention of subsection (1) of this section may be detained until she ceases to be so loaded.

(7) For the purposes of the application of this section to a ship in any circumstances prescribed by the load line rules in accordance with section 3 (2) (d) of this Act, “the appropriate load line” means the load line which, in accordance with those rules, indicates the maximum depth to which the ship may be loaded in salt water in those circumstances.