Cap. 234 Art. 265Production of certificate for clearance.

(1) Subject to any exemption conferred by or under the load line provisions of this Act, before a foreign ship to which those provisions apply proceeds to sea from any port in Malta, the master of the ship shall produce the appropriate certificate to the officer from whom a clearance for the ship is demanded; and a clearance shall not be granted, and the ship may be detained, until the appropriate certificate is produced.

(2) For the purposes of this article, the appropriate certificate -

(a) in the case of a ship to which article 261 applies, where a clearance for the ship is demanded in respect of an international voyage, is a valid Convention certificate;

(b) in any other case is either a valid Convention certificate or a Malta load line certificate for the time being in force in respect of the ship.