PUBLISHED BY J. D. POTTER, Sole Agent for the Sale of The Admiralty Charts, 31, POULTRY, AND 11, KING STREET, TOWER HILL. [ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.] 1889. PREFACE. This volume purports to contain an analysis or alphabetical digest of the unrepealed Acts of Parliament relating to merchant shipping which were passed from 1821 to 1888, both years inclusive. Its aim is to indicate under appropriate titles and collectively, all the sections of the various enactments which are included in those statutes and which bear upon any one subject, or affect any individual interest or class of interests. The analysis is preceded by a list of the statutes, and is followed by a somewhat ample summary of them, arranged in the order of their dates. Although the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854 embodied nearly all the then existing legislation upon the subject, yet it did not contain the provisions of a few earlier statutes in which shipping interests are concerned. A considerable amount of further legislation bearing upon those interests has been since effected, including extensive modifications and partial or entire repeals of much that was contained in the Act of 1854 and in subsequent amending Acts. Hence, the enactments relating to the various maters dealt with are not only numerous, but are more or less scattered through the different parts of the many Acts of Parliament wherein the subject as a whole is comprehended. Many classes of persons are directly liable to some of the provisions contained in those Acts in various particulars, and under serious penalties for infraction. All who have property, or any legal or beneficial interest in a ship, or in any share or shares in a ship, are included in their operation. Ship Owners are, of course, extensively affected by them, not only in regard to ownership, but as to numerous important details. A ship's proper equipment for sea-the provisioning and the health and means of safety of passengers and crew, safe loading, the steps to be taken in connection with the engagement, discharge, and payment of seamen and apprentices, and measures for the avoidance or in mitigation of the perils of navigation-are some of the matters respecting which Ship-Owners have to give careful and vigilant attention by themselves or their agents. While, as to ShipMasters, the enactments specify a multitude of complicated requirements to which those officers are bound to conform under heavy penalties. Lighthouse and harbour authorities, pilots, salvors, anchor and chaincable manufacturers, ship-brokers, and other persons engaged in shipping transactions, come within their application. They include the conferring of jurisdiction upon the Courts of Justice for the settlement of many commercial or maritime questions, and require Magistrates and Justices of the Peace to enforce some of their provisions. They empower commanders of Her Majesty's ships abroad, and in their absence British Consular Agents at foreign ports, to hold Naval Courts respecting complaints by seamen and for other purposes, and require the same agents and also Collectors of Customs and other Government officers to perform various specified duties. Finally, they assign to the Board of Trade important administrative and executive functions in connection with the carrying of the several Acts into effect, with the superintendence of all matters in regard to Merchant Shipping, excepting only those which relate to revenue. As a means of immediate reference to all the enactments which directly bear upon any one subject or matter included in that extensive range of legislation, it is hoped that the book will prove to be of general practical use. March, 1889. N.B.-The List of Statutes, and the Analysis are paged in LIST OF THE UNREPEALED STATUTES from 1821 to 1888, SUMMARY OF THE STATUTES- -as per the List above-mentioned (A) Order in Council of the 11th August, 1884, making new Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, including ci. ci. & cii. (B) Order in Council of the 30th December, 1884, modifying and adding to the above Regulations as regards British Fishing Vessels and Boats when in the Sea off the Coast of Europe (C) Order in Council of the 24th June, 1885, further modifying and adding to the above Regulations as regards British Sailing Fishing Vessels and Boats, when in the Sea off the |