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Merchant Shipping Act, 1951 (Act No. 57 of 1951)

Chapter V : Safety of Ships and Life at Sea

Part II : Load lines

216. Inspection and control of load line convention ships not registered in the Republic

 

(1) If a recognized non-South African international load line certificate is produced in respect of a load line ship which is registered in a country (other than the Republic) to which the Load Line Convention applies and is at a place within the Republic or the territorial waters thereof, a surveyor's powers of inspecting the ship with respect to load line shall be limited to ascertaining—
(a) whether the ship is loaded beyond the limits allowed by the certificate;
(b) whether the position of the load lines on the ship corresponds with the position specified in the certificate;
(c) whether since the certificate was issued any structural alterations have taken place in the hull or superstructures of the ship which affect the position of the load lines; and
(d) whether the fittings and appliances for the protection of openings, the guard rails, the freeing ports and the means of access to the crew accommodation have been maintained on the ship in as effective a condition as they were in when the certificate was issued.

[Section 216(1) substituted by section 24(a) of Act No. 13 of 1965]

 

(2) If a surveyor finds on inspection that the ship is loaded beyond the limits allowed by the certificate, he shall give notice in writing to that effect to the master, pointing out the extent of the overloading and requiring that the matter be rectified.

 

(3) If a surveyor finds on inspection that the load lines of the ship are not in the position specified in the certificate, he shall give notice in writing to that effect to the owner or master, pointing out the defects and requiring the same to be made good.

 

(4) A copy of every notice given under subsection (2) or (3) shall be transmitted by the surveyor to the proper officer at any port at which a clearance for that ship may be requested, and a clearance shall not be granted, and the ship shall be detained, until a certificate under the hand of a surveyor is produced stating that the matter has been rectified or the deficiency made good, as the case may be.

 

(5) If a recognized non-South African international load line certificate is not produced to the surveyor on such demand as aforesaid, the surveyor shall have the same power of inspecting the ship, for the purpose of seeing that the provisions of this Part have been complied with, as if the ship were a ship registered in the Republic.

[Section 216(5) substituted by section 24(b) of Act No. 13 of 1965]

 

(6) For the purposes of this section a ship shall be deemed to be loaded beyond the limits allowed by the certificate if she is so loaded as to submerge in salt water, when the ship has no list, the appropriate load line on each side of the ship, that is to say, the load line appearing by the certificate to indicate the maximum depth to which the ship is for the time being entitled under the Load Line Convention to be loaded.