NOTICE OF EXAMINATIONS OF MASTERS & MATES, AND OF VOLUNTARY EXAMINATIONS IN STEAM. UNDER the provisions of "The Merchant Shipping Act, 1854," no Foreign-going Ship,* or Home-trade Passenger Ship, can obtain a clearance or transire, or legally proceed to sea, from any port in the United Kingdom, unless the Master thereof, and in the case of a Foreign-going Ship, the First and Second Mates, or Only Mate (as the case may be), have obtained and possess valid Certificates, either of Competency or Service, appropriate to their several stations in such ship, or of a higher grade; and no such ship, if of one hundred tons burden or upwards, can legally proceed to sea unless at least one officer besides the Master has obtained and possesses a valid certificate, appropriate to the grade of Only Mate therein, or to a higher grade; and every person who, having been engaged to serve as Master, or as First or Second or Only Mate, of any Foreigngoing ship, or as Master or First or Only Mate of a Home-trade is * By a "Foreign-going Ship" is meant one which is bound to some place out of the United Kingdom, beyond the limits included between the river Elbe and Brest; and by a "Home-trade Passenger Ship meant any Home-trade Ship employed in carrying Passengers; and it is to be observed that Foreign Steam Ships, when employed in carrying Passengers between places in the United Kingdom, are subject to all the provisions of the Act, as regards Certificates of Masters, Mates, and Engineers, to which British Steam Ships are subject. A Passenger Ship, goes to sea as such Master or Mate, without being at the time entitled to and possessed of such a certificate as the Act requires, or who employs any person as Master, or First, Second, or Only Mate of any Foreign-going Ship, or as Master, or First or Only Mate of any Home-trade Passenger Ship, without ascertaining that he is at the time entitled to and possessed of such certificate, for each offence incurs a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds. Every Certificate of Competency for a Foreign-going Ship is to be deemed to be of a higher grade than the corresponding Certificate for a Home-trade Passenger Ship, and entitles the lawful holder to go to sea in the corresponding grade in such last-mentioned ship; but no Certificate for a Home-trade Passenger Ship entitles the owner to go to sea as Master or Mate of a Foreign-going Ship. Certificates of Competency will be granted to those persons who pass the requisite examinations, and otherwise comply with the requisite conditions. For this purpose Examiners have been appointed, and arrangements have been made for holding examinations at the under-mentioned ports, and upon the days specified against them :— Aberdeen,.........Friday in each week. Belfast,. Bristol,.... Cork,. Dublin,. Dundee,.. Glasgow,..... Greenock, Hull,.. Leith,.. .First and third Tuesday in each month. ..Second and fourth Monday in each month. ..Saturday in each week. Thursday in each week; held alternately at Second and fourth Tuesday in each month. Liverpool,..... ..Monday and Thursday in each week. London,....... Newcastle...... North Shields, Monday in each week. Thursday in each week, held alternately at each place; except in months of June, July, August, and September, when once in two weeks. Sunderland,.......Monday in each week from October first to March thirty-first; and every alternate Monday from April first to September thirtieth. Plymouth,......... Tuesday in each week. Candidates for examination must give in their names to the Local Marine Board before the day of examination, and must conform to any regulations in this respect which may be laid down by the Local Marine Board; and if this be not done, delay may be occasioned. The rule is the same at nearly all the ports, Candidates must apply two days previous to the day of examination, during office hours. Testimonials of Character, Sobriety, Experience, Ability and Good Conduct on board ship, will be required of all candidates, and without producing them no person will be examined. As such testimonials may have to be forwarded to the office of the Registrar-General of Seamen in London, for verification before any certificate can be granted, it is desirable that candidates should lodge them as early as possible. The testimonials of servitude of Foreigners and of British seamen serving in foreign vessels, which cannot be verified by the Registrar-General of Seamen, must be confirmed either by the Consul of the country to which the ship in which the candidate served belonged, or by some other recognised official authority of that country, or by the testimony of some credible person on the spot having personal knowledge of the facts required to be established. Upon application to the Superintendent of the Mercantile Marine Office, candidates will be supplied with a form, which they will be required to fill up and lodge with their testimonials in the hands of the Examiners. Services which cannot be verified by proper entries in the Articles of the ships in which the candidates have served will not be counted. Thus, for instance, a man will state his service to have been as Second or Only Mate, and to support his assertion will produce a certificate of discharge or of employment by the Master stating that he served as Mate, when on reference to the Articles it appears that he has actually been rated as Boatswain; the service in such a case will not be regarded as having been in the capacity of Mate. Whenever a man has, from any cause, been regularly promoted on a vacancy in the course of the voyage from the rank in which he first shipped, and such promotion, with the ground on which it has been made, is properly entered in the Articles and in the Official Log Book, he will of course receive credit for his service in the higher grade for the period subsequent to his promotion. The examinations will commence early in the forenoon on the days mentioned, and will be continued from day to day until all the candidates whose names appear upon the Superintendent's list on the day of examination are examined. Where the Local Marine Board are in every respect satisfied with the testimonials of a candidate, service in the coasting trade may be allowed to count as service, in order to qualify him for examination for a certificate of competency for Foreign-going ships as a Mate, and two years' service as Mate in the coasting trade may be allowed to count as service for a Master's certificate, provided the candidate's name has been entered as Mate on the coasting Articles, and provided he has already passed an examination. QUALIFICATIONS FOR CERTIFICATES OF COMPETENCY FOR A FOREIGN-GOING SHIP. A SECOND MATE must be seventeen years of age, and must have been four years at sea. IN NAVIGATION.—He must write a legible haud, and understand the first five rules of arithmetic, and the use of logarithms. He must be able to work a day's work; to find the bearing and distance of the port he is bound to by Mercator's method; and to find the difference of longitude by parallel sailing. He must be able to correct the sun's declination for longitude, and find the latitude from a meridian altitude of the sun. He will also have to give definitions in writing of several terms used in Navigation and Astronomy. He must understand the use of the sextant, and be able to observe with it, and adjust it, and read off the arc. IN SEAMANSHIP.-He must give satisfactory answers as to the rigging and unrigging of ships, stowing of holds, &c.; must understand the measurement of the log-line, glass, and lead-line; be thoroughly conversant with the rule of the road, as regards both steamers and sailing vessels, and the lights and fog-signals carried by them. He will also be examined as to his acquaintance with the Commercial Code of Signals, and he must know the leading lights of the channel he has been accustomed to navigate, or which he is going to use. |