CONFIDENTIAL
Reference
6
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Mr Laird
Rh Clewles
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WORLD WIDE SHIPPING
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I understand from Mr Lambert that you wished to know the answer to the question posed by Mr Lee and quoted below.
"Mr Lee said that manning was the only real problem. He gave the following example of the difficulties he foresaw. If a ship registered in Hong Kong had, with the agreement of the Director of Marine in Hong Kong, an alien as, say, Chief Engineer and if that Chief Engineer fell sick while the ship were in, for example, an Australian port, the company would have to seek approval from the Director of Marine in Hong Kong before putting anybody else into the Chief Engineer's place. All this would take time and time was money when one was dealing with large oil tankers. Mr Lee asked whether it would be possible to obtain some kind of blanket exemption, say, for a ship.
#1
2. The written reply from DTI has not yet arrived but I understand the position is as follows:
This is a matter for Mr Milburn, Director of Marine Hong Kong to decide but, under the 1967 Merchant Shipping Act in the UK, it is not possible for a ship to be given "blanket exemption" in thesense meant by Mr Lee. (Manning exemption could be granted to a ship in special circumstances, e.g. for a ship trading continually abroad where the service of British officers was difficult to obtain or accommodation was unsuitable but, even in this case, the individual officer would still have to be vetted by UK authorities)
Nevertheless, providing reasonable efforts to obtain a suitable replacement have been made, there is an escape clause under UK law which allows a ship 28 days grace before replacing one of its certificated officers (i.e. it could sail without one of the following five officers - Master, Chief Officer, Second Officer, Chief Engineer, Second Engineer).
3. I regret legal advice is not yet available because I was awaiting information from DTI before obtaining it.
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DD 896639 140609 500M 7/71 GM 3643/2
CONFIDENTIAL