Merchant Shipping (Safety and Load Line Conventions) Act 1932

4 Rules for life-saving appliances to implement Chapter III of Safety Convention.

The rules for life-saving appliances applicable to passenger steamers plying on international voyages shall include such requirements as appear to the Board of Trade to implement the provisions of Chapter III of the Safety Convention and the Regulations referred to therein (except in so far as the said provisions are otherwise implemented by the Merchant Shipping Acts):

Provided that—

(a) the Board may, on such conditions as they think fit, exempt any steamer constructed before the first day of July, nineteen hundred and thirty-one, from any such requirement, if and to the extent that they are satisfied that that requirement is either impracticable or unreasonable in the case of that steamer;

(b) the Board may, as respects passenger steamers plying on any international coasting voyage, modify any such requirement, if and to the extent that they are satisfied that the risks incurred by steamers plying on that voyage are such as to make it unreasonable or unnecessary for such steamers to comply with that requirement;

(c) the Board may, as respects passenger steamers engaged in any passenger trade in which they are employed in the carriage of large numbers of unberthed passengers, if they are satisfied that it is impracticable for steamers so engaged to comply with the said requirements, modify the said requirements in such manner as may appear to them to be necessary or expedient for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of sub-paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) of paragraph 5 of Article twelve of the Safety Convention;

(d) the Board may, as respects any passenger steamer plying on short international voyages, make such modifications of the said requirements as appear to them to be authorised by the provisions of the Safety Convention contained in sub-paragraph (b) of paragraph 2 of Article thirteen, paragraph (4) of Regulation XXXVI, paragraph (11) of Regulation XXXVII, paragraph (2) of Regulation XXXVIII, and Regulation XXXIX.