Merchant Shipping Act, 1894

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Space occupied by deck cargo to be liable to dues.

85.—(1) If any ship, British or foreign, other than a home trade ship as defined by this Act, carries as deck cargo, that is to say, in any uncovered space upon deck, or in any covered space not included in the cubical contents forming the ship’s registered tonnage, timber, stores, or other goods, all dues payable on the ship’s tonnage shall be payable as if there were added to the ship’s registered tonnage the tonnage of the space occupied by those goods at the time at which the dues become payable.

(2) The space so occupied shall be deemed to be the space limited by the area occupied by the goods and by straight lines enclosing a rectangular space sufficient to include the goods.

(3) The tonnage of the space shall be ascertained by an officer of the Board of Trade or of Customs in manner directed as to the measurement of poops or other closed-in spaces by Rule I. in the Second Schedule to this Act, and when so ascertained shall be entered by him in the ship’s official log-book, and also in a memorandum which he shall deliver to the master, and the master shall, when the said dues are demanded, produce that memorandum in like manner as if it were the certificate of registry, or, in the case of a foreign ship, the document equivalent to a certificate of registry, and in default shall be liable to the same penalty as if he had failed to produce the said certificate or document.

(4) Nothing in this section shall apply to any ship employed exclusively in trading or going from place to place in any river or inland water of which the whole or part is in any British possession, or to deck cargo carried by a ship while engaged in the coasting trade of any British possession.