30
CAP. 369]
Merchant Shipping (Safety)
[1981 Ed.
(b) in any other case, the appropriate load line on each side of the ship would be submerged if the ship were in salt water and had no list.
(2) If any ship is loaded in contravention of subsection (1), the owner or master of the ship, subject to subsection (5), commits an offence and is liable-
(a) to a fine of $10,000; and
(b) to such additional fine, not exceeding an amount calculated in accordance with subsection (3), as the court thinks fit to impose, having regard to the extent to which the earning capacity of the ship was increased by reason of the contravention.
(3) Any additional fine imposed under subsection (2)(b) shall not exceed $6,000 for every 25 millimetres and for any fraction of 25 millimetres over and above one or more complete multiple of 25 millimetres, by which-
(a) in a case falling within subsection (1)(a), the appropriate load line on each side of the ship was submerged; or
(b) in a case falling within subsection (1)(b), the appropriate load line on each side of the ship would have been submerged as therein mentioned,
and, if the amount by which that load line was or would have been submerged was less than 25 millimetres, any such additional fine shall be $6,000.
(4) If the master of a ship takes the ship to sea when it is loaded in contravention of subsection (1), or if any other person, having reason to believe that the ship is so loaded, sends or is party to sending it to sea when it is loaded in contravention of that subsection, then (without prejudice to any fine to which he may be liable in respect of an offence under subsection (2)) he commits an offence and is liable to a fine of $20,000.
(5) Where a person is charged with an offence under subsection (2), it shall be a defence to prove that the contravention was due solely to deviation or delay and that the deviation or delay was caused solely by stress of weather or other circumstances which neither the master nor the owner could have prevented or forestalled.
(6) Without prejudice to any proceedings under the preceding provisions of this section, any ship which is loaded in contravention of subsection (1) may be detained until it ceases to be so loaded.
(7) For the purposes of the application of this section to a ship in any circumstances prescribed by the load line regulations “the appropriate load line" means the maximum depth to which the ship may, in accordance with those regulations, be loaded in salt water in those circumstances.