any interest, either legal or beneficial, in a ship using a British flag and assuming the British character, such interest shall be forfeited to her Majesty: ship. (4.) If any person, on behalf of himself, or any other person or For false declabody of persons, wilfully makes a false declaration touching the ration of ownerqualification of himself or such other person or body of persons to own British ships or any shares therein, the declarant shall be guilty of a misdemeanor; and the ship or share in respect of which such declaration is made, if the same has not been forfeited under the foregoing provision, shall, to the extent of the interest therein of the person making the declaration, and, unless it is shown that he had no authority to make the same, of the parties on behalf of whom such declaration is made, be forfeited to her Majesty. And in order that the above provisions as to forfeitures may be carried into effect, it shall be lawful for any commissioned officer on full pay in the military or naval service of her Majesty, or any British officer of customs, or any British consular officer, to seize and detain any ship which has, either wholly or as to any share therein, become subject to forfeiture as aforesaid, and to bring her for adjudication before the High Court of Admiralty in England or Ireland, or any Court having Admiralty jurisdiction in her Majesty's dominions; and such Court may thereupon make such order in the case as it may think fit, and may award to the officer bringing in the same for adjudication such portion of the proceeds of the sale of any forfeited ship or share as it may think right. CIV. No such officer as aforesaid shall be responsible, either civilly Officer not liable or criminally, to any person whomsoever, in respect of the seizure or made on reasonfor any seizure detention of any ship that has been seized or detained by him in able grounds. pursuance of the provisions herein contained, notwithstanding that such ship is not brought in for adjudication, or, if so brought in, is declared not to be liable to forfeiture, if it is shown to the satisfaction of the judge or Court before whom any trial relating to such ship or such seizure or detention is held that there were reasonable grounds for such seizure or detention; but if no such grounds are shown, such judge or Court may award payment of costs and damages to any party aggrieved, and make such other order in the premises as it thinks just. colours. CV. If any colours usually worn by her Majesty's ships, or any Penalty for carcolours resembling those of her Majesty, or any distinctive national rying improper colours, except the red ensign usually worn by merchant ships, or except the union-jack with a white border, or if the pendant usually carried by her Majesty's ships or any pendant in anywise resembling such pendant, are or is hoisted on board any ship or boat belonging to any subject of her Majesty without warrant for so doing from her Majesty or from the Admiralty, the master of such ship or boat, or the owner thereof, if on board the same, and every other person hoisting or joining or assisting in hoisting the same, shall for every such offence incur a penalty not exceeding five hundred pounds; and it shall be lawful for any officer on full pay in the military or naval service of her Majesty, or any British officer of the customs, or any British consular officer, to board any such ship or boat, and to take away any such jack, colours, or pendant; and such jack, colours, or pendant shall be forfeited to her Majesty. CVI. Whenever it is declared by this act that a ship belonging to Effect of decla any person or body corporate qualified according to this act to be ration in the act that a ship shal owners of British ships shall not be recognized as a British ship, such not be recognized ship shall not be entitled to any benefits, privileges, advantages, or as a British ship. protection usually enjoyed by British ships, and shall not be entitled to use the British flag or assume the British national character; but, so far as regards the payment of dues, the liability to pains and penalties, and the punishment of offences committed on board such Evidence. Copies of registers and declarations to be admissible in evidence, and to be prima facie proof of certain things. Saving Clause. Saving of 3 & 4 Vict. c. 56, relating to East Indian ships. ship or by any persons belonging to her, such ship shall be dealt with in the same manner in all respects as if she were a recognized British ship. Evidence. CVII. Every register of or declaration made in pursuance of the second part of this act in respect of any British ship may be proved in any Court of Justice, or before any person having by law or by consent of parties authority to receive evidence, either by the production of the original or by an examined copy thereof, or by a copy thereof purporting to be certified under the hand of the registrar or other person having the charge of the original; which certified copies he is hereby required to furnish to any person applying at a reasonable time for the same, upon payment of one shilling for each such certified copy; and every such register or copy of a register, and also every certificate of registry of any British ship, purporting to be signed by the registrar or other proper officer, shall be received in evidence in any Court of Justice, or before any person having by law or by consent of parties authority to receive evidence, as primâ facie proof of all the matters contained or recited in such register when the register or such copy is produced, and of all the matters contained in or endorsed on such certificate of registry, and purporting to be authenticated by the signature of a registrar, when such certificate is produced. Saving Clause. CVIII. Nothing in this act contained shall repeal or affect an act passed in the session of parliament holden in the third and fourth years of the reign of her present Majesty, chapter fifty-six, intituled "An Act further to regulate the Trade of Ships built and trading within the Limits of the East India Company's Charter." Application. Application of Part III. of act. Returns for certain ships belong ing to the United Kingdom. Returns and wages of deceased seamen in certain colonial ships. Shipping and discharging men in the United Kingdom. PART III. MASTERS AND SEAMEN. Application. CIX. The various provisions of the third part of this act shall have the following applications, unless the context or subject-matter requires a different application; (that is to say,) So much of the third part of this act as relates to the delivery or into the navy. So much of the third part of this act as relates to seamen volun- Volunteering teering into the royal navy shall apply to all sea-going British ships wherever registered, and to the owners, masters, and crews of such ships, wherever the same may be: cable to colonial So much of the third part of this act as relates to rights to wages and Provisions appliremedies for the recovery thereof; to the shipping and discharge ships. of seamen in foreign ports; to leaving seamen abroad, and to the relief of seamen in distress in foreign ports; to the provisions, health, and accommodation of seamen; to the power of seamen to make complaints; to the protection of seamen from imposition; to discipline; to naval courts on the high seas and abroad; and to crimes committed abroad; shall apply to all ships registered in any of her Majesty's dominions abroad, when such ships are out of the jurisdiction of their respective governments, and to the owners, masters, and crews of such ships: And the whole of the third part of this act shall apply to all sea- As to the whole of going ships registered in the United Kingdom, (except such as are exclusively employed in fishing on the coasts of the United Kingdom, and such as belong to the Trinity House, the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses, or the Port of Dublin Corporation, and also except pleasure yachts,) and also to all ships registered in any British possession and employed in trading or going between any place in the United Kingdom and any place or places not situate in the possession in which such ships are registered, and to the owners, masters, and crews of such ships respectively, wherever the same may be. Local Marine Boards. Part III. of act. Local Marine Boards. local marine boards. CX. There shall be local marine boards for carrying into effect the provisions of this act under the superintendence of the Board of Trade Constitution of at those seaports of the United Kingdom at which local marine boards have heretofore been established, and at such other places as the Board of Trade appoints for this purpose; and each of such local marine boards shall be constituted as follows; (that is to say,) the mayor or provost and the stipendiary magistrate, or such of the mayors or provosts and stipendiary magistrates of the place (if more than one) as the Board of Trade appoints, shall be a member or members ex officio; the Board of Trade shall appoint four members from persons residing or having places of business at the port of or within seven miles thereof; and the owners of foreign-going ships and of home-trade passenger ships registered at the port shall elect six members; and such elections as aforesaid shall take place on the twenty-fifth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, and on the twenty-fifth day of January in every third succeeding year, and such appointments as aforesaid shall take place within one month after such elections; and upon the conclusion of such month and the constitution of a new board, the functions of the then existing board shall cease, and the board consisting of the members then newly elected and appointed shall take its place; and any occasional vacancy caused in the intervals between the general elections and appointments by death, resignation, disqualification, or otherwise, shall be filled up within one month after it occurs; and every person elected or appointed on an occasional vacancy shall continue a member until the next constitution of a new board; and the mayor or provost shall fix the place and mode of conducting all such elections as aforesaid, and also on occasional vacancies the day of election, and shall give at least ten days' notice thereof; and the Board of Trade shall have power to decide any questions raised concerning any such elections. voters for mem CXI. Owners of foreign-going ships and of home-trade passenger Qualification of ships registered at any seaport at which there is a local marine board bers of local * E marine boards. Lists of such shall have votes at the election of members of such board as follows; CXII. The collector or comptroller of customs in every seaport of voters to be made. the United Kingdom at which there is a local marine board shall, with the assistance of the registrar general of seamen, on or before the twenty-fifth day of December in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, and in every third succeeding year, make out an alphabetical list of the persons entitled by virtue of this act to vote at the election of members of such local marine board, containing the christian name, surname, and residence of each such person, and the number of votes to which he is entitled, and shall sign such list, and cause a sufficient number of copies thereof to be printed, and to be fixed on or near the doors of the Custom-house at such seaport for two entire weeks next after such list has been made, and shall keep true copies of such list, and permit the same to be perused by any person, without payment of any fee, at all reasonable hours during such two weeks. Revision of list of voters. CXIII. The mayor or provost of every seaport at which there is a local marine board, or such of them, if more than one, as is or are for the time being so appointed as aforesaid, shall at least twenty days before the twenty-fifth day of January, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, and in each succeeding third year, nominate two justices of the peace to revise the said lists; and such justices shall, between the eighth and fifteenth days of January both inclusive in the year in which they are so nominated, revise the said list at the Custom-house of the port, or in some convenient place near thereto, to be hired, if necessary, by the said collector or comptroller, and shall give three clear days' notice of such revision by advertising the same in some local newspaper, and by affixing a notice thereof on or near to the doors of such Custom-house, and shall make such revision by inserting in such list the name of every person who claims to be inserted therein, and gives proof satisfactory to the said revisors of his right to have his name so inserted, and by striking out therefrom the name of every person to the insertion of which an objection is made by any other person named in such list who gives proof satis factory to the said revisors that the name of the person so objected to ought not to have been inserted therein; and the decision of the said revisors with respect to every such claim or objection shall be conclusive; and the said revisors shall immediately after such revision sign their names at the foot of the list so revised; and such list so revised shall be the register of voters at elections of members of the local marine board of such seaport for three years, from the twentyfifth day of January then next ensuing inclusive to the twenty-fourth day of January inclusive in the third succeeding year; and the said revised list, when so signed, shall be delivered to such mayor or provost as aforesaid of the place, who shall, if necessary, cause a sufficient number of copies thereof to be printed, and shall cause a copy to be delivered to every voter applying for the same. CXIV. The said collector or comptroller, if required, shall for the Registers to be assistance of the said revisors in revising the said list produce to them produced. the books containing the register of ships registered at such seaport; and the registrar general of seamen, if required, shall also produce or transmit to such revisors such certified extracts or returns from the books in his custody as may be necessary for the same purpose. CXV. The two justices aforesaid shall certify all expenses properly Expenses to be incurred by any such collector or comptroller as aforesaid in making paid by Board of and printing the said list and in the revision thereof, and the Board of Trade shall pay the same, and also all expenses properly incurred by any such mayor or provost as aforesaid in printing the same or in elections taking place under this act; and the said board may disallow any items of any such expenses as aforesaid which it deems to have been improperly incurred. Trade. vote. CXVI. Every person whose name appears on such revised list, and Persons on revised no other person, shall be qualified to vote at the election of members list qualified to of the local marine board at such seaport, to be held on the twentyfifth day of January next after the revision of such list, and at any occasional election held at any time between that day and the next ordinary triennial election of the members of such board. marine boards. CXVII. Every male person who is according to such revised list of Qualification of the voters at any seaport entitled to a vote shall be qualified to be members of local elected a member of the local marine board of such seaport, and no other person shall be so qualified; and if any person elected as a member after such election ceases to be an owner of such quantity of tonnage as would entitle him to a vote, he shall no longer continue to act or be considered as a member, and thereupon another member shall be elected in his place. done. CXVIII. No act of any local marine board shall be vitiated or Error in clections prejudiced by reason of any irregularity in the election of any of its not to viliate acts members, or of any error in the list of voters herein mentioned, or of any irregularity in the making or revising of such list, or by reason of any person who is not duly qualified as herein-before directed acting upon such board. Minutes and business of local CXIX. Every local marine board shall keep minutes of its proceedings, and the same shall be kept in such mode (if any) as the marine boards. Board of Trade prescribes; and such minutes, and all books or documents used or kept by any local marine board, or by any examiners, shipping masters, or other officers or servants under the control of any local marine board, shall be open to the inspection of the Board of Trade and its officers; and every local marine board shall make and send to the Board of Trade such reports and returns as it requires; but, subject as aforesaid, every local marine board may regulate the mode in which its meetings are to be held and its business conducted. marine board fails CXX. If any local marine board, by reason of any election not If any local taking place, or of the simultaneous resignation or continued non- to discharge its attendance of all or the greater part of the members, or from any duties, Board of other cause, fails to meet or to discharge its duties, the Board of Trade may assume Trade may in its discretion either take into its own hands the per- a new election. its duties, or direct |