Merchant Shipping (Registration of Ships) Act 2014
|
Transfers etc. of registered ships | ||
|
49. (1) A transfer of a registered ship, or a share in such a ship, to a qualified person shall be effected by a bill of sale or by means of such other document of transfer as may be prescribed. | ||
(2) A bill of sale in respect of a ship or a share in it shall contain such description of the ship as is contained in the certificate of measurement, or the certificate of measurement of an authority recognised by the Minister under section 20 (2), or in certain prescribed circumstances, a declaration for the purpose of measurement, as appropriate, and shall be in an approved form and shall be executed by the transferor in the presence of, and be attested by, a witness or witnesses. | ||
(3) Where a registered ship or a share in it is transferred in accordance with subsections (1) and (2), the transferee shall not be entitled to be registered as owner thereof until the transferee or, in the case of a body corporate, the person authorised by section 44 to make declarations on behalf of that body, has made and signed a declaration (in this Act called a declaration of transfer) referring to the ship, and containing— | ||
(a) a statement of the qualification of the transferee to own a registered ship, or, if the transferee is a body corporate, of such circumstances of the constitution and business thereof as prove it to be qualified to own a registered ship in accordance with section 15 , and | ||
(b) a declaration that, to the best of his or her knowledge and belief, no person who is not a qualified person in accordance with section 15 is entitled as owner to any legal or beneficial interest in the ship or any share therein. | ||
(4) Every bill of sale for the transfer of a registered ship or of a share therein, when executed, shall be produced to the Minister, with the declaration of transfer, and the Minister shall enter the name of the transferee as owner of the ship or share on the Register, and shall endorse on the bill of sale that entry, with the day and hour. | ||
(5) Bills of sale of a ship or of a share therein shall be registered on the Register in the order in which they are produced to the Minister for registration. | ||
(6) In this section a reference to a bill of sale in subsections (2), (4) and (5) includes a reference to any document of transfer prescribed under subsection (1). |