Cap. 234 ст. 273Deck cargo.

(1) The Minister may make regulations (in this Act referred to as the "deck cargo regulations") prescribing requirements to be complied with where cargo is carried in any uncovered space on the deck of a ship to which the load line provisions of this Act apply; and different requirements may be so prescribed in relation to different descriptions of ships, different descriptions of cargo, different voyages or classes of voyages, different seasons of the year and any other different circumstances.

(2) If the load line rules provide (either generally or in particular cases or classes of cases) for assigning special freeboards to ships which are to have effect only where a cargo of timber is so carried, then, without prejudice to the generality of the preceding sub-article, the deck cargo regulations may prescribe special requirements to be complied with in circumstances where any such special freeboard has effect.

(3) In prescribing any such special requirements as are mentioned in sub-article (2), the Minister shall have regard in particular to the relevant provisions of the Load Line Convention.

(4) If any provisions of the deck cargo regulations are contravened -

(a) in the case of a Maltese ship, or

(b) in the case of any other ship while the ship is in any port in Malta, the master of the ship shall, subject to the next following sub-article, be liable to a fine (multa) not exceeding one thousand units.

(5) Where a person is charged with an offence under sub-article (4), it shall be a defence to prove that the contravention was due solely to deviation or delay and that the deviation or delay was caused solely by stress of weather or other circumstances which neither the master nor the owner nor the charterer (if any) could have prevented or forestalled.

(6) For the purpose of securing compliance with the deck cargo regulations, any person authorised in that behalf by the Minister may inspect any ship to which the load line provisions of this Act apply which is carrying cargo in any uncovered space on her deck; and for the purposes of any such inspection any such person shall have all the powers of a surveyor of ships.

Miscellaneous and supplementary provisions