Merchant Shipping (Safety Convention) Act 1949

12 Prohibition on proceeding to sea without appropriate certificates

(1) No British ship registered in the United Kingdom shall proceed to sea on an international voyage from a port in the United Kingdom unless there is in force in respect of the ship—

(a) if she is a passenger steamer, a general safety certificate, a short-voyage safety certificate, a qualified safety certificate or a qualified short-voyage safety certificate which (subject to the provisions of this section relating to short-voyage safety certificates) is applicable to the voyage on which the ship is about to proceed and to the trade in which she is for the time being engaged;

(b) if she is not a passenger steamer, both—

(i) a safety-equipment certificate or a qualified safety-equipment certificate, and

(ii) a radio certificate or a qualified radio certificate, or an exemption certificate stating that she is wholly exempt from the requirements of the Safety Convention relating to radiotelegraphy, radiotelephony and direction-finders:

Provided that this subsection shall not prohibit a ship, not being a passenger steamer, from proceeding to sea as aforesaid if there is in force in respect of the ship such certificate or certificates as would be required if she were a passenger steamer.

(2) For the purposes of this section, a qualified certificate shall not be deemed to be in force in respect of a ship unless there is also in force in respect of the ship the corresponding exemption certificate ; and an exemption certificate shall be of no effect unless it is by its terms applicable to the voyage on which the ship is about to proceed.

(3) If any ship proceeds, or attempts to proceed, to sea in contravention of this section—

(a) in the case of a passenger steamer, the owner or master of the steamer shall, without prejudice to any other remedy or penalty under the Merchant Shipping Acts, be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding ten pounds for every passenger carried on board the steamer, and the owner or master of any tender by means of which passengers have been taken on board the steamer shall be liable on summary conviction to a like fine for every passenger so taken on board; and

(b) in the case of a ship not being a passenger steamer, the owner or master of the ship shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds.

(4) The master of every British ship registered in the United Kingdom shall produce to the officer of customs from whom a clearance for the ship is demanded for an international voyage the certificate or certificates required by the foregoing provisions of this section to be in force when the ship proceeds to sea; and a clearance shall not be granted, and the ship may be detained, until the said certificate or certificates are so produced.

(5) Where the Minister permits any passenger steamer in respect of which there is in force a short-voyage safety certificate, whether qualified or not, to proceed to sea on an international voyage from a port in the United Kingdom not exceeding twelve hundred nautical miles in length between the last port of call in the United Kingdom and the final port of destination, the certificate shall for the purposes of this section be deemed to be applicable to the voyage on which the steamer is about to proceed notwithstanding that the voyage exceeds six hundred nautical miles between the said ports.

(6) Where an exemption certificate issued in respect of any British ship registered in the United Kingdom specifies any conditions on which the certificate is issued and any of those conditions is not complied with, the owner or master of the ship shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds.