Where and how registry By the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, sect. 30, the following may be made. persons are authorized and required to register British ships, and are made registrars for the purposes of the act: (1.) At any port or place in the United Kingdom or Isle of Man approved by the Commissioners of Customs for the registry of ships, the collector, comptroller or other principal officer of customs for the time being. (2.) In Guernsey and Jersey, the principal officers of customs, together with the governor, lieutenant-governor or other person administering the government of those islands. (3.) In Malta, Gibraltar and Heligoland, the governor, lieutenant-governor or other person administering the government. (4.) At any port or place within the limits of the charter, (5.) At the ports of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, the unless a member of a British factory, Parliament, or act or ordinance of the legislature of any of the British possessions in Asia, Africa or America, or authorized by any such act to hold shares in British shipping, were, on taking the oath of allegiance, qualified to be owners of British registered vessels. Both these acts are now repealed by the Merchant Shipping Repeal Act, 1854, the 17 & 18 Vict. c. 120. (m) The government of the territories formerly governed by the E. I. Co. is by the 21 & 22 Vict. c. 106, transferred to the Crown. lieutenant-governor or other person administering the By sect. 6 of the Merchant Shipping (Colonial) Act, 1869 (32 Vict. c. 11), power is given to the Queen, by order in council, to declare with respect to any British possession mentioned in the order, the description of persons who are to be registrars in that possession (0). By sect. 29 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1873, a similar power is given to the Queen with respect to foreign parts within which her Majesty exercises jurisdiction, in accordance with the Foreign Jurisdiction Acts (p). By sect. 33, the port or place at which any British ship is Port of registered for the time being is to be considered her port of registry. registry, or the port to which she belongs. Sect. 35 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, provides that the application to register is to be made by the proposed owners, or by some one or more of them, or by their duly authorized agent, and, in the case of bodies corporate, by their duly authorized agent; the authority of the agent, if appointed by individuals, must be testified by writing under the hands of the appointors, and if by a corporation, under its common seal. By sect. 36 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, the ship Certificate of must, before registry, be surveyed by a person duly appointed under the act, who is to grant a certificate specifying her tonnage, build, and such other particulars descriptive of her identity as may from time to time be required by the Board of Trade; this certificate must be delivered to the registrar before registry (9). () As to the liability of registrars, the returns which are to be made by them to the Commissioners of Customs, and the application of fees received by the registrars, see sects. 93, 94 and 95. In all cases the place must be approved of by the Commissioners of Customs, subject to the following provision:The governor, lieutenant-governor or other person administering the government in any British possession where any ship is registered under the authority of the act is, with regard to the performance of any act or thing relating to the registry of a ship or of any interest therein, to be considered in all respects as occupying the place of the Commissioners of Customs; and any British consular officer, in any place where there is no justice of the peace, is authorized to take any de claration required or permitted to be 31. As to the fees to be taken by (0) On the 6th July, 1869, an order (p) The 6 & 7 Vict. c. 94; 28 & 29 Vict. c. 116; 29 & 30 Vict. c. 87; 38 & 39 Vict. c. 85; 41 & 42 Vict. c. 67. An Order in Council has been made appointing Shanghai a port of British Registry. See Appendix, "Orders in Council." (1) A form of this certificate is given in the schedule to the M. S. Act, 1854, survey. Rules for The Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, contains in sects. 20 to ascertaining 24, rules for ascertaining the tonnage both of sailing and steam tonnage. vessels (r). The rules are mainly based upon the principle that the number of tons of water displaced by the vessel when fully laden affords the true measure of her capacity (s); but special provision is made for the measurement of permanent closed-in spaces on an upper deck and of the space under a spar deck. Deduction for Nothing, however, is to be added to the tonnage for a closed-in crew space and engine room. space on the upper deck solely appropriated to the berthing of the crew (t), unless such space exceeds one-twentieth of the remaining tonnage of the ship, and nothing is to be added to the tonnage in respect of any building erected for the shelter of deck passengers and approved by the Board of Trade. In see Form A. By sect. 96 of that act, however, the Commissioners of Customs are empowered, with the consent of the Board of Trade, to alter from time to time the forms contained in the schedule of the act, on giving sufficient public notice before issuing an altered form. The form now in use, which will be found in the Appendix, "Forms," No. 1, varies from that contained in the schedule to the act. (r) The 23rd sect. of the M. S. Act, 1854, is to be construed as if the Board of Trade were therein named instead of the Commissioners of Customs. The M. S. Act, 1872, s. 3. By sect. 29 of the M. S. Act, 1854, and sect. 13 of the M. S. Act, 1872, the Board of Trade may, with the sanction of the Treasury, appoint persons to superintend the survey and admeasurement of ships, and may make from time to time regulations for this purpose. And may with the like approval make such modifications and alterations as from time to time become necessary in the tonnage rules, in order to the more accurate and uniform application thereof and effectual carrying out of the principle of admeasurements therein adopted. In The City of Dublin Steam Packet Co. v. Thompson, 19 C. B., N. S. 553; S. C., Cam. Scacc., L. R., 1 C. P. 355, it was held that the 29th sect. of the M. S. Act, 1854, did not authorize the commissioners to make rules for the measurement of the tonnage of steam vessels which would have the effect of altering the allowance in respect of the space occupied by the propelling power as provided by sect. 23 of the same Act. By the 13th sect. of the M. S. Act, 1872, all duties in relation to the survey and measurement of ships under that act, or the acts amended thereby, are to be performed by the surveyors appointed under the 4th part of the act of 1854, in accordance with the regulations of the Board of Trade. As to the fees to be paid with respect to the survey and measurement of ships under the M. S. Acts, see the M. S. Act, 1873, s. 30, and Schedule III. and Appendix, "General Table of Fees charged under the authority of the Board of Trade,' ""Forms," No. 55, and the M. S. Act, 1876, s. 39, as to the payment of such fees. As to like fees payable at Shanghai, see Appendix, "Orders in Council." (s) The mode of measuring directed by these sections differs from that prescribed by sects. 16, 17, 18 and 19 of the 8 & 9 Vict. c. 89. In 1849, commissioners were appointed by the government to consider the best method of measuring ships, and they recommended an external measurement. This suggestion being open to many objections was never adopted. The system at present in force was proposed by Mr. Moorsom, one of those commissioners. (t) See as to what is not "space available for cargo" or for "accommodation of passengers and crew within the M. S. Act, 1854, s. 21, subs. 4, Lord Advocate v. Clyde Steam Navigation Co., 2 L. R., Sc. App. Cases, 409. See also The Franconia, 3 P. D. 164. The rules, however, with respect to the deductions which may be claimed for crew space in British ships are subject to the provisions of the M. S. Act, 1867, s. 9. steamships deduction is to be made in respect of the space occupied by the propelling power of the ship. The following provisions respecting deck cargoes are contained Deck cargo in sect. 23 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1876:-If any ship, spaces. British or foreign, other than home trade ships as defined by the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854 (), carries as deck cargo, that is to say, in any uncovered space upon deck, or in any covered space not included in the cubical contents forming the ship's registered tonnage, timber, stores, or other goods, all dues payable on the ship's tonnage shall be payable as if there were added to the ship's registered tonnage the tonnage of the space occupied by such goods at the time at which such dues become payable. The space so occupied shall be deemed to be the space limited by the area occupied by the goods and by straight lines inclosing a rectangular space sufficient to include the goods. The tonnage of such space shall be ascertained by an officer of the Board of Trade or of Customs, in manner directed by sub-sect. 4 of sect. 21 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, and when so ascertained shall be entered by him in the ship's official log book, and also in a memorandum which he shall deliver to the master, and the master shall, when the said dues are demanded, produce such memorandum in like manner as if it were the certificate of registry, or, in the case of a foreign ship, the document equivalent to a certificate of registry, and in default shall be liable to the same penalty as if he had failed to produce the said certificate or document (¿). The provisions of this section do not apply to deck cargo carried by a ship while engaged in the coasting trade of any British possession (w). By sect. 26 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, when the tonnage of any ship has been ascertained and registered, it is thenceforth to be deemed her tonnage, and it must be repeated in every subsequent registry, unless an alteration is made in her form or capacity, or the tonnage has been erroneously computed, in which case the ship may be remeasured and her tonnage correctly registered (x). (u) The M. S. Act, 1854, s. 2. (v) Ib. s. 50. For the forms issued by the Board of Trade for the purpose of carrying out the above provisions of the act of 1876, see Appendix, "Forms," No. 45. (w) The M. S. Act, 1876, s. 44. Re-measure ment. Measurement of foreign ships. By sect. 27 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, ships registered before the act came into operation need not have their registered tonnage altered so as to accord with the new system; but any owner may, if he wishes it, have his ship remeasured according to these rules (r); and by sect. 28, a power was given to the Commissioner of Customs, which has since been transferred to the Board of Trade (y), to require that the engine-rooms of steam ships which have been measured before the present act, and altered by the introduction of store rooms or coal bunkers across them, shall be remeasured, so as not to exclude from the tonnage of the ships, by reason of the deduction which is allowed for the engine-room, a larger space than is proper (≈). These rules as to tonnage do not, of course, affect foreign ships; but by the Merchant Shipping Act, 1862, s. 60, whenever it is made to appear to the Queen that the rules concerning the measurement of tonnage for the time being in force under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, have been adopted by the government of any foreign country, and are in force in that country, the Queen may, by order in council, direct that the ships of such foreign country shall be deemed to be of the tonnage denoted in their certificates of registry or other national papers (a); and such ships need not be remeasured in any port or place in the Queen's dominions, but are to be deemed to be of the tonnage denoted in their certificates of registry or other papers, in the same manner, to the same extent, and for the same purposes, in, to and for which the tonnage denoted in the certificates of registry of British ships is deemed to be the tonnage of such ships (6). rates on ships may, if they think fit, (x) By the M. S. Act, 1855, s. 14, () The M. S. Act, 1872, s. 3. () As to the fees payable on such re-measurement, see the M. S. Act, 1873, s. 30; the M. S. Act, 1876, s. 89, and Appendix, "Forms," No. 55. (a) The Franconia, 3 P. D. 164. () As to the effect of such an order in council and its publication, alteration and revocation, see the M. S. Act, 1862, ss. 61, 62, 63 and 64. Orders in council have been made extending the measurement rules to the following countries:-Austro-Hungary, 19th August, 1871; Denmark, 29th February, 1868, 30th December, 1878; France, 5th May, 1873; Germany, 26th June, 1873; Italy, 30th September, 1873; Netherlands, 26th October, 1875; Norway, 17th May, 1876; Spain, 17th March, 1875; Sweden, 17th March, |