S.I. No. 108/1967 - Merchant Shipping (Navigational Warnings) Rules, 1967.

S.I. No. 108 of 1967.

MERCHANT SHIPPING (NAVIGATIONAL WARNINGS) RULES, 1967.

I, ERSKINE H. CHILDERS, Minister for Transport and Power, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 35 of the Merchant Shipping (Safety Convention) Act, 1952 (No. 29 of 1952), section 17 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1966 (No. 20 of 1966), and the Transport, Fuel and Power (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order, 1959 ( S.I. No. 125 of 1959 ), hereby make the following rules :—

1. (1) These Rules may be cited as the Merchant Shipping (Navigational Warnings) Rules, 1967.

(2) These Rules shall come into operation on the 16th day of May, 1967.

(3) The Merchant Shipping (Distress and Urgency Signals and Danger Warnings) Rules, 1936 ( S. R. & O. No. 298 of 1936 ), are hereby revoked.

2. In these Rules—

" coast station " means a station on land intended to provide communication with ships by means of radio;

" signal station " means a station on land for the purpose of providing communication with ships by means other than radio;

" tropical storm " means a hurricane, typhoon, cyclone, or other storm of a similar nature, and the master of a ship shall be deemed to have met with a tropical storm if he has reason to believe that there is such a storm in his vicinity.

3. (1) The master of every ship registered in the State on meeting with dangerous ice, a dangerous derelict, a tropical storm or any other direct danger to navigation, or on encountering air temperatures below freezing point associated with gale force winds causing severe ice accretion on the superstructure of ships or winds of force 10 or above on the Beaufort Scale for which no storm warning has been received shall send by all means of communication at his disposal information relating to the matters set out in the Schedule to these Rules.

(2) The information shall be sent to ships in the vicinity and to the person in charge for the time being of the nearest coast station or signal station with which it is possible for the ship to communicate. In case the station is a signal station, the information shall be accompanied by a request that it be sent forthwith to the nearest coast station.

(3) The information shall be sent by the master of the ship in plain language or by means of the International Code of Signals.

(4) The information, when sent by the master of the ship by means of radio, shall commence with an indication of the nature of the danger to which it relates and shall be preceded by the safety signal consisting, if the information is sent by radio telegraphy, of the group TTT in the Morse Code, repeated three times, with the letters of each group and the successive groups clearly separated from each other, or if the information is sent by radiotelephony, of the spoken word " Sécurité " (pronounced " SAY-CURE-E-TAY ") repeated three times.

SCHEDULE.

1. In meeting with dangerous ice, a dangerous derelict or any other direct danger to navigation (except the dangers mentioned in paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 of this Schedule) the master of the ship shall send information relating to the following matters :—

(a) the kind of ice, derelict or other danger observed,

(b) the position of the ice, derelict or other danger when last observed,

(c) the Greenwich Mean Time and date when the danger was last observed.

2. On meeting with a tropical storm the master of the ship shall send information relating to the following matters :—

(a) the position of the storm so far as it can be ascertained together with the Greenwich Mean Time and date when the storm was encountered,

(b) the position, true course and speed of the ship when the observation was made.

In addition the master of the ship shall send as much of the following information as lies within his power :—

(c) the barometric pressure, corrected if possible, indicating whether such pressure is given in millibars, inches or millimetres and whether the reading is corrected or uncorrected.

(d) the change in barometric pressure during the previous three hours,

(e) the true direction of the wind,

(f) the wind force according to the Beaufort Scale,

(g) the state of the sea (smooth, moderate, rough or high),

(h) the swell (slight, moderate or heavy) and the true direction from which it comes,

(i) the period or length of the swell (short, average or long).

3. On encountering air temperatures below freezing point associated with gale force winds causing severe ice accretion on the superstructure of ships, the master of the ship shall send information relating to the following matters :—

(a) the Greenwich Mean Time and date when the encounter occurred,

(b) the air temperature and (if practicable) the sea temperature at such time,

(c) the force of the wind encountered according to the Beaufort Scale and the true direction thereof.

4. On encountering winds of force 10 or above on the Beaufort Scale (other than tropical storms) for which no storm warning has been received, the master of the ship shall send the information listed in paragraph 2 of this Schedule other than the details concerning state of the sea and the swell.

GIVEN under my Official Seal, this 3rd day of May, 1967.

ERSKINE H. CHILDERS,

Minister for Transport and Power.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

These Rules implement the provisions of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1960, relating to the dissemination of warnings of navigational hazards by and to ships.