(1)Nothing in section 5 of this Act or section 17(1) of the Act of 1949 shall prohibit a ship from proceeding to sea without such a certificate as is required, or is equivalent to one required, under the said section 5, until the expiry of two years from the commencement of this Act.
(2)Nothing in section 15(a) of this Act or section 12(1)(b)(ii) or 17(1) of the Act of 1949 shall prohibit a ship of less than five hundred tons gross tonnage from proceeding to sea without such a certificate as is required, or is equivalent to one required, under the said section 12(1)(b)(ii), until the expiry of one year from the commencement of this Act.
(3)The Minister may by regulations provide that for such purposes, for such a period and subject to such conditions as may be specified by or under the regulations—
(a)any country to which the Safety Convention applies shall be treated for the purposes of this Act as if it were a country to which the Convention applies; and
(b)any certificate which immediately before the commencement of this Act was an accepted Safety Convention certificate within the meaning of the Act of 1949 as originally enacted may be treated as if it were an accepted Safety Convention certificate within the meaning of that Act as amended by this Act.
(4)The following provisions of the Act of 1949 are hereby repealed, that is to say.—
(a)in section 14 (1) the words "the preceding provisions of ";
(b)in section 18(2) the words from "and shall be based" to the end of the subsection ;
(c)in section 34 (1) the words "the preceding provisions of this Act or the First Schedule to " ;
(d)in section 36 (1) the definition of " the Merchant Shipping Acts ";
(e)in Schedule 1, paragraphs 2 to 4.
(1)This Act shall come into force on such day as Her Majesty may by Order in Council appoint.
(2)In the Act of 1949 " the Merchant Shipping Acts " shall mean the Merchant Shipping Acts 1894 to 1958 and this Act; and this Act shall be construed as one with those Acts.
(3)This Act may be cited as the Merchant Shipping Act 1964, and the Merchant Shipping Acts 1894 to 1958 and this Act may be cited together as the Merchant Shipping Acts 1894 to 1964.
(4)This Act extends to Northern Ireland.