Merchant Shipping (Load Lines) Act, 1968
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Deck cargo. |
25.—(1) The Minister shall make regulations (in this section referred to as the deck cargo regulations) prescribing requirements to be complied with where cargo is carried in any uncovered space on the deck of a ship to which this Act applies; and different requirements may be so prescribed in relation to different descriptions of ships, different descriptions of cargo, different voyages or classes of voyages, different seasons of the year or any other different circumstances. | |
(2) If the load line rules provide (either generally or in particular cases or classes of cases) for assigning special freeboards to ships which are to have effect only where a cargo of timber is so carried, then (without prejudice to the generality of the preceding subsection) the deck cargo regulations may prescribe special requirements to be complied with in circumstances where any such special freeboard has effect. | ||
(3) In prescribing any such special requirements as are mentioned in the last preceding subsection, the Minister shall have regard in particular to the provisions of Chapter IV of the Convention of 1966. | ||
(4) If any provisions of the deck cargo regulations are contravened— | ||
(a) in the case of a registered ship, or | ||
(b) in the case of any other ship while the ship is within any port in the State, | ||
the master of the ship shall (subject to the next following subsection) be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds and on conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding one thousand pounds. | ||
(5) Where a person is charged with an offence under the last preceding subsection, 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) For the purpose of securing compliance with the deck cargo regulations, any person authorised in that behalf by the Minister may inspect any ship to which this Act applies which is carrying cargo in any uncovered space on her deck; and for the purposes of any such inspection any such person shall have all the powers of an inspector under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894 . |