227 Merchant Shipping (bahamas)

• Author: Ralph Hone
• Pages: #5

[CH.227.

CHAPTER 227.

MERCHANT SHIPPING (BAHAMAS) ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS.

SECTION.

1. SHORT TITLE.

   PART I.

   EMPLOYMENT OF SEAMEN.

2. CAPTAINS TO ENTER INTO AGREEMENT WITH THEIR CREW.

3. CAPTAINS OF DROGHERS TO ENTER INTO AGREEMENT WITH THEIR CREW.

4. DEPOSIT OF AGREEMENT.

5. PENALTY FOR NOT MAKING FORMAL AGREEMENT WITH CREW.

6. PENALTY FOR REFUSING, ETC., TO DO DUTY AFTER HAVING SIGNED AGREEMENT.

7. AMOUNT OF FORFEITURE REGULATED.

8. PUNISHMENT FOR HARBOURING DESERTERS.

9. LIABILITY FOR DEBTS OF SEAMEN REGULATED.

10. SEAMEN MAY PROCURE IMMEDIATE PAYMENT OF WAGES.

11. HOW SEAMEN ARE TO PROCEED TO PREVENT DELAY IN RECOVERY OF WAGES.

12. SUITS INSTITUTED IN ANY COURT OF RECORD, WHERE JUSTICES MIGHT HAVE SETTLED THE SAME, NO COSTS SHALL BE AWARDED PLAINTIFF.

13. WHO DEEMED MASTER AND WHO SEAMAN.

14. SEAMEN COMMITTING OFFENCES ENUMERATED ARE LIABLE TO BE PUNISHED SUMMARILY IN THE MANNER SPECIFIED.

15. CONVEYANCE OF DESERTER ON BOARD SHIP.

16. DISCRETION VESTED IN COURT IN RESPECT TO PUNISHMENT OF DESERTING SEAMEN.

17. FORFEITURES, HOW ASCERTAINED AND RECOVERED.

18. RULES TO BE OBSERVED WITH RESPECT TO THE ENGAGEMENT OF SEAMEN.

19. How MASTERS ARE TO ENGAGE SEAMEN IN ANY COMMONWEALTH COUNTRY.

20. How MASTERS ARE TO ENGAGE SEAMEN OUT OF THE COMMONWEALTH.

21. MASTERS TO REPORT ARRIVAL AND ANSWER QUESTIONS.

22. EXPENSES OF MEDICAL ATTENDANCE IN CASE OF INJURY OR ILLNESS.

23. RECOVERY OF FINES.

24. EXEMPTIONS OF CERTAIN VESSELS.

    PART II.

    DISTRESSED SEAMEN.

25. INTERPRETATION OF PART If.

26. REPAYMENT OF EXPENSES FOR RELIEF, ETC., OF DISCHARGED SEAMEN.

27. EXPENSES TO FORM CHARGE UPON SHIP.

28. EXPENSES RECOVERABLE SUMMARILY.

    PART IlI.

    ARREST OF FOREIGN SEAMEN.

29. COMMITTAL OF ANY FOREIGN SEAMAN WHO DESERTS, ETC.

30. WHEN RECOGNISANCES SHALL BE ENFORCED.

    PART IV.

    PASSENGER SHIPS.

    SECTION.

31. INTERPRETATION OF PART IV.

32. RULES.

33. PRIVILEGES OF SHIPS HOLDING SAFETY CONVENTION CERTIFICATES.

34. POWER OF MINISTER TO EXEMPT FROM SAFETY REQUIREMENTS.

35. DETENTION OF SHIP VIOLATING THIS PART OF THIS ACT.

36. PENALTY.

    PART V.

    WRECKS.

37. INVESTIGATION OF CERTAIN CASUALTIES TO SHIPS.

38. PERSONS OF NAUTICAL SKILL MAY ACT AS ASSESSORS.

39. REMUNERATION FOR DUTY IMPOSED.

40. INQUIRY, WHICH HAS NOT BEEN EFFECTIVE, MAY BE AGAIN HELD.

41. NEW INQUIRIES.

42. CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH WRECKED PROPERTY MAY BE DISPOSED OF.

43. POWERS TO ENFORCE THIS PART OF THIS ACT.

44. DEFINES 'PROPERTY'.

45. FOREIGN PROPERTY.

    SCHEDULE.

    FORM OF AGREEMENT FOR EMPLOYMENT OF SEAMEN.

    [CH.227.

    CHAPTER 227.

    MERCHANT SHIPPING (BAHAMAS).

    AN ACT TO REGULATE MERCHANT SHIPPING, THE EMPLOYMENT OF SEAMEN IN THE MERCHANT SERVICE OF THE COLONY, THE INVESTIGATION OF WRECKS AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES AND MATTERS CONNECTED THEREWITH.

    3 of 1838. 7 of 1952.

    2 of 1858. 8 of 1959.

    14 of 1865. 14 of 1962.

    28 of 1865. G.N. 7 (34) 4 of 1870. of 1964.

    1 of 1873. G.N. 187 of 6 of 1878. 1964.

    20 of 1931. 43 of 1964.

    31 of 1944.

    [28th July 1838.1

1. This Act may, be cited as The Merchant Shipping (Bahamas) Act.

   PART I.

   EMPLOYMENT OF SEAMEN.

2. The master of any ship or vessel belonging to or owned within the Colony, and trading to any port without the Colony, shall not carry persons to sea, in any nautical capacity, without first entering into an agreement in writing, which shall be in the form known as the Board of Trade Articles of Agreement for foreign going ships.

3. The master of any ship or vessel who engages or causes to be engaged any person to be employed on board thereof within the Colony for the purpose of wrecking or droghing, shall enter into an agreement in writing in the form set out in the Schedule to this Act.

4. -(1) In the case of a ship or vessel bound to any port without the Colony, the owner or master thereof, shall, on reporting her arrival at or return to any port of the Colony at which the voyage shall terminate, deposit or cause to be deposited with the Comptroller at such port, (or, where there is no Comptroller, with the customs officer for such port), a true copy of the agreement referred to in section 2 of this Act.

   (2) In the case of a ship or vessel employed in wrecking or droghing within the Colony, the owner or,.

   Short title.

   Captains to enter into an agreement with their crew.

   20 of 1931, s. 3.

   Captains of droghers to enter into agreement with their crew.

   20 of 1931, s. 3.

   Schedule.

   Deposit of agreement.

   20 of 1931, s. 3.

   Penalty for no, making formal agreement with crew.

   Penalty for refusing, etc., to do duty after having signed agreement.

   master thereof shall, at the end of such voyage, deposit with the Comptroller, or customs officer (as the case may be),,of the port at which her voyage may terminate, a true copy of the agreement referred to in section 3 of this Act.

   (3) All copies of agreements as required by this Part of this Act to be deposited as aforesaid, shall, when the same shall have been deposited, and shall be required to be produced as evidence, be received and taken as legal proof of the contents of the agreement.

5. -(1) If the master of any ship or vessel, whether employed without or within the Colony, shall carry out to sea any person engaged to act on board thereof in any nautical capacity, without having first entered into such agreement as is hereby required, he shall, for every such offence, forfeit and pay the sum of two pounds.

   (2) If any such master shall neglect or refuse to cause the agreement to be distinctly read over to every such person as by this Part of this Act is enjoined, he shall, for every such offence or neglect, forfeit and pay the sum of ten shillings.

   (3) If any master or owner (as the case may be) shall neglect to deposit with the Comptroller, or customs officer (as the case may be), a copy of the agreement hereby required to be made, and deposited as aforesaid, or shall wilfully deposit a falsified copy of such agreement, he shall for every offence forfeit and pay the sum of twenty pounds.

6. In case a seaman shall at any time after having signed an agreement as hereinbefore mentioned, refuse or neglect to join the ship or vessel on board of which he shall have engaged to serve, or shall refuse to proceed to sea in her,' or shall absent himself therefrom without leave, it shall be lawful for any justice of the peace at the port or islands to which such vessel may belong, or at which the said vessel may be then lying, and such justice, upon complaint of the fact, made upon oath of the master, mate or owner thereof, is hereby required by his warrant to cause such seaman to be apprehended and brought before him, and in case such offender shall not give a reason to the satisfaction of such justice for his neglect, refusal or absence (as the case may be) upon due proof of such neglect, refusal or absence, it shall be lawful for such justice to commit such offender to prison, there to be kept at hard labour for thirty days:

   [CH.227.

   Provided that in case such seaman on being apprehended and brought before such justice, shall consent to join the ship or vessel and proceed on the voyage for which he shall have agreed, it shall be lawful for the said justice, at the request of the master, instead of committing such seaman, to cause him to be conveyed on board of the said ship or vessel, or to be delivered to the master for the purpose of proceeding on the voyage, and also to award to the master such costs incurred in the apprehension of such seaman, and as to such justice shall seem reasonable, not exceeding in any case the sum of twenty shillings, which shall be chargeable against, and may be abated from, the wages or other emoluments to grow due to such seaman.

7. In all cases where the seaman shall have 'con- Amount of forfeiture tracted to serve for a portion or share of the profits or regulated.

   emoluments of the vessel during the voyage, the amount of forfeitures to be incurred by seamen under this Act shall be ascertained in manner following, that is to say, the forfeiture of the moiety aforesaid, or one month's pay expressed in this Act, shall be accounted and taken to be such a portion of the whole amount earned by him under his contract as shall be equivalent to the earnings of one month, as compared with the whole period of the duration of the voyage and the amount earned and due to him; and in like manner a forfeiture of two days' pay or less shall be accounted and taken to be a forfeiture of a sum bearing the same proportion to the whole amount earned during the voyage, as the same period of time shall bear to the whole time spent in the voyage.

8. If any person shall, either on ship-board or on Punishment for shore, secrete or harbour a seaman who shall have harbouring signed an agreement to proceed on any voyage, whether deserters.

   within the Colony or beyond the same, and shall have deserted or absented himself without leave from his vessel, knowing or having reason to believe him to be a deserter, or to be absent without leave, every person so offending shall, for every such seaman so harboured or secreted, forfeit and pay the sum of four pounds.

9. No debt exceeding sixteen shillings incurred by Liability for debts of any seaman, after he shall have signed an agreement as seamen aforesaid, shall be recoverable until the voyage agreed -regulated.

   for shall have been concluded; nor shall it be lawful for any keeper of a public-house or of a lodging house for seamen, to withhold from him or detain any chest, bed, bedding, clothes, tools or other effects of any seaman for any pretended debt alleged to have been contracted by any such seaman. In case any such chest, bed, bedding, clothes, tools or other effects aforesaid, shall be withheld or detained contrary to this Act, it shall be lawful for any justice of the peace, upon any complaint made upon oath by such seaman, or on his behalf, to inquire into such matter, and if he shall see right, by warrant under his hand and seal to cause any such property or effects so withheld or detained contrary to this Act, to be seized and delivered over to such seaman.

   Seamen may procure immediate payment of wages.

   How seamen are to...