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anchorage she could not be forcibly removed from such anchorage by any authority other than the Harbour Master. If she were against the will of her Master boarded and her anchor weighed or if she were otherwise forcibly removed by order of the Naval Authorities, the persons responsible
for such order and for such action would be liable in damages for trespass. The only legal course which would be open to the Naval Authorities to enforce the removal of a merchant ship so anchoring would be to appeal to the
Harbour Master to enforce the Regulations by which the anchorage was reserved and the Harbour Master in the exercise of the powers vested in him could compel the observance of the Harbour Regulations with respect to anchorages by removing, by force if need be, the Merchant Ship which in defiance of such regulation insisted upon using the anchorage reserved for men of war. In other words ships of war are by the Harbour Regulations and for
the convenience of the Naval Authorities restricted to an area set apart within the harbour and all ships other than ships of war are forbidden to use the area so set apart
but such regulations do not confer upon the Naval Authorities any power over the waters so set apart nor any right except that of asking that the regulations to give effect to the concession to them of a special anchorage for their ships of war should be enforced by the Harbour Master.
The concession by which an anchorage for ships of war is reserved extends solely to "ships of war". Consequently the request made by the Naval Authorities for the removal of launches and lighters moored in the neighbourhood of the Dockyard Extension Works is in effect a request for an extension of the Concession. In considering this requisition it is to be noted that it is not based upon anything connected