Merchant Shipping (Safety and Load Line Conventions) Act, 1933

Submersion of sub-division load lines.

23.—(1) Where—

(a) a passenger steamer registered in Saorstát Eireann has been marked with sub-division load lines, that is to say, load lines indicating the depth to which the steamer may be loaded having regard to the extent to which she is sub-divided and to the space for the time being allotted to passengers; and

(b) the appropriate sub-division load line, that is to say, the sub-division load line appropriate to the space for the time being allotted to passengers on the steamer, is lower than the load line indicating the maximum depth to which the steamer is for the time being entitled under Part II of this Act to be loaded;

the steamer shall not be so loaded as to submerge the appropriate sub-division load line on each side of the steamer when the steamer has no list.

(2) If any such steamer is loaded in contravention of this section, the owner or master of the steamer shall be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds, and to such additional fine, not exceeding the amount hereinafter specified, as the court thinks fit to impose, having regard to the extent to which the earning capacity of the ship was, or would have been, increased by reason of the submersion.

(3) The said additional fine shall not exceed one hundred pounds for every inch or fraction of an inch by which the appropriate sub-division load line on each side of the ship was submerged, or would have been submerged if the ship had had no list.

(4) Without prejudice to any proceedings under the foregoing provisions of this section, any such steamer which is loaded in contravention of this section may be detained until she ceases to be so loaded.

(5) The foregoing provisions of this section shall apply to passenger steamers not registered in Saorstát Eireann while they are within any port in Saorstát Eireann as they apply to passenger steamers registered in Saorstát Eireann.