Merchant Shipping Act, 1906

Title to be rated as A. P.

58.(1) For the purpose of reducing the period of service required as a qualification for the rating of A.B., the period of “three years before the mast” shall be substituted for the period of “four years before the mast,” and “two years of that employment” shall be substituted for “three years of that employment,” and “two or more years sea service” shall be substituted for “three or more years sea service,” in section one hundred and twenty-six of the principal Act.

(2) Any superintendent or other officer before whom a seaman is engaged shall refuse to enter the seaman as A.B. on the agreement with the crew unless the seaman gives such satisfactory proof as is required by section one hundred and twenty-six of the principal Act of his title to be so rated; and if any seaman, for the purpose of obtaining a rating as A.B., makes any false statement or false representation, he shall be liable on summary conviction in respect of each offence to a fine not exceeding five pounds.