Passenger Ships.

(From the Globe, February 5.)

Notice to Masters and Mates of Home Trade Passenger Ships ; meaning thereby, ships employed in carrying passengers within the following limits ; viz., the United Kingdom, the Islands of Guernsey. Jersey, Sark, Alderney, and Man ; and the Continent of Europe between the River Elbe and Brest inclusive.

After the 1st day of May next no home trade passenger ship will be allowed to clear out or obtain a transire at any part in the United Kingdom, unless the matter and mate are in possession of a certificate either of competency or of service, and these certificates must be produced half-yearly with the articles of the ship to some shipping master. Ships of 100 tons burden and upwards must have a certificated mate. Masters and mates who go to sea without having the required certificates, and owners who knowingly employ them without such certificates, are liable to a penalty not exceeding �50.

Certificates of service will be granted to all masters and mates who have served as such in home trade passenger ships prior to the 1st January, 1854, and may be had after the 1st day of March next, on application to the Registrar-General. of Seamen, Custom house, London, on bending in a form of claim, properly filled up, which may be had from any shipping master.

Certificates of competency will be granted by the Board of Trade to all such masters and mates as pass the examination for this particular service before one of the Local Marine Boards.

The examinations before the Local Marine Boards will commence on the 1st day of March next, and all persons desirous of passing should apply to the shipping masters of the respective ports.

A certificate of competency for a foreign-going ship is by the Act made equivalent to a certificate of equal or lower grade for a home trade passenger ship, and entitled the holder to fill the situation of master or mate, as the case may be, in the later description of ship.

Certificates of competency for home trade passenger ships will be of two kinds only : viz., for masters and mates respectively.

After the 1st day of May next every ship carrying passengers between any place situate in the United Kingdom or the Channel Islands, or the Isle of Man, and any other place so situate, must during such times, as she is navigating upon any waters for which pilots are duly licensed according to law, have a duly licensed pilot on board, unless the master or mate possesses a pilotage certificate of service, or a pilotage certificate granted by some pilotage authority or by the Board of Trade.

Pilotage certificates of service will be granted to all masters who have satisfactorily piloted their own vessels for two complete years consecutively before the 1st day of May next.

In order to obtain these certificates of service application, must he made to the Registrar General of Seamen, Custom House, London, upon a form which may be obtained from any shipping master.

Other pilotage certificates are to be procured only after satisfactory examination before the legally constituted pilotage authority for the district for which the pilotage certificate is required, and all persons being desirous of being examined for such a pilotage certificate for any particular port or district should apply to the proper pilotage authority for that port or district.

The earliest possible application should be made for certificates of service, in order that no delay or inconvenience may be caused, on and after the 1st of May next, when the Act comes into Operation.

Board of Trade, Feb. 1, 1855.

SG & SGTL Vol 12 ; Page 90 ; 14 May 1855

NOTICE TO MASTERS AND ONLY MATES OF FOREIGN GOING SHIPS.
THE following additions to the qualifications now required from persons applying for Certificates of competency for foreign going ships, will be made after the 31st March, 1857 :

All masters of foreign going ships, in addition to the subjects of examination prescribed in the Notice of Examination issued in 1855, will be examined in so much of the laws of the tides as is necessary to enable them to shape a course and to compare their soundings with the depths marked on the charts.

All only mates must be nineteen years of age, and must have been five years at sea, and, in addition to the qualifications required in the Notice above referred to, must be able to find the longitude by chronometer in the usual way.
Board of Trade, 29th December, 1856.

^ back to top ^