343
C. O.
19011
Minute by the Attorney-General. RECO
(REG: 23 MAY 03)
Hon. Colonial Secretary.
The supreme control over the waters of the harbour is vested in the Harbour Master as representing His Excellency the Governor except so far as such control is restricted by concession made by the Government to the Naval Authorities under which men of war have the exclusive right of anchorage in a certain portion of the harbour.
This concession was made in 1860 at the request of the Admiral then commanding in chief. The concession is confined to the reservation within specified bounds of a certain portion of the waters of the harbour to form "an anchorage" where ships of war may anchor to the exclusion of all other ships.
The concession confers no right upon the Naval Authorities except the right to call upon Government to exclude all ships other than men of war from anchoring in the portion of the harbour so reserved. The concession does not vest in the Naval Authorities any property in or any legal control over the portion of the harbour so reserved, for their convenience, as an anchorage for the warships.
The policing of the reserved area is not done by the Naval Authorities but by the Harbour Police.
Should any obstruction occur in the portion of the harbour so reserved, as when a dredger sank in the Naval Anchorage during a typhoon, the duty of causing the removal of the obstruction would fall upon the Harbour Authorities and not upon the Naval.
Should a Merchant vessel in defiance of the Harbour Regulations to the contrary insist upon anchoring within the area reserved by Government for a man of war anchorage