Merchant Shipping (Load Lines) Act, 1968

Submersion of load lines on ships other than registered ships.

15.—(1) Where a ship to which this Act applies, not being a registered ship, is within any port in the State, and is marked with load lines, the ship shall not be so loaded that—

(a) if the ship is in salt water and has no list, the appropriate load line on each side of the ship is submerged, or

(b) in any other case, the appropriate load line on each side of the ship would be submerged if the ship were in salt water and had no list.

(2) Subsections (2), (3), (5) and (6) of section 5 of this Act shall have effect for the purposes of this section as if any reference in those subsections to subsection (1) of that section, or to paragraph (a) or paragraph (b) of the said subsection (1), were a reference to subsection (1), or (as the case may be) to the corresponding paragraph of subsection (1) of this section:

Provided that, in the case of a ship to which section 13 of this Act applies, the ship shall not be detained, and no proceedings shall be brought by virtue of this subsection, unless the ship has been inspected by a ship surveyor or engineer surveyor in pursuance of section 18 of this Act.

(3) In relation to a ship in respect of which a valid Convention certificate is produced “load line” in subsection (1) of this section means a line marked on the ship in the position of a load line specified in that certificate; and for the purposes of the application of the relevant provisions to such a ship in any circumstances for which a particular load line is specified in the certificate, the “appropriate load line” means the load line which, in accordance with the certificate, indicates the maximum depth to which the ship may be loaded in salt water in those circumstances.

(4) Where a valid Convention certificate is not produced in respect of a ship, for the purposes of the application of the relevant provisions to that ship in any circumstances prescribed by the load line rules in accordance with section 3 (2) (d) of this Act, “the appropriate load line” means the load line which, in accordance with those rules, indicates the maximum depth to which the ship may be loaded in salt water in those circumstances.

(5) In subsections (3) and (4) of this section “the relevant provisions” means the provisions of subsection (1) of this section and any provisions of section 5 of this Act as applied by subsection (2) of this section.