Submarine Telegraph Act, 1885

Application of law as to lights and signals for carrying into effect Articles five and six of Convention.

25 & 26 Vict. c. 63.

46 & 47 Vict. c. 22.

5. (1.) It is hereby declared that the enactments of the [1] Merchant Shipping Act, 1862, and the enactments amending the same, touching regulations as to lights and to signals and for the avoiding of collisions, shall extend to authorise regulations for carrying into effect Articles five and six of the schedule to this Act, within as well as without the territorial waters of Her Majesty’s dominions, and regulations may be made, applied, altered, and revoked, and the contravention thereof punished accordingly under the said enactments, and section six of the Sea Fisheries Act, 1883, shall extend to the enforcement of the said regulations as regards sea fishing boats within the limits of that Act.

(2.) If any vessel engaged in the laying or repairing of a submarine cable to which the Convention for the time being applies, interferes contrary to the said regulations or articles with any vessel engaged in fishing, or if the operations of any vessel in connexion with any such submarine cable are wilfully delayed so as to interfere with sea fishing, the master of the vessel, or the owner thereof, if it appear that he was in fault, shall be deemed guilty of a breach of the said regulations and may be punished accordingly.

[1 This Act is rep. 57 & 58 Vict. c. 60. s. 745, which substitutes a reference to that Act.]