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It requires any seafarer who is the holder of an employment registration book but who was not entitled to the issue of it, or whose name has been removed from the register of seafarers, or whose registration has been suspended, or any other person having possession of an employment registration book without lawful authority, to surrender it to the Superintendent.
The Merchant Shipping (Seafarers) (Engine Room Watch Ratings) Regulation provides that it is an offence for an employer to fail to ensure that sufficient qualified ratings are carried to enable the master and the chief engineer to perform their duties, and it is also an offence for the master or the chief engineer to permit an unqualified rating to form part of an engine room watch.
The Merchant Shipping (Seafarers) (Navigational Watch Ratings) Regulation applies to all seagoing Hong Kong ships over 200 gross registered tons other than fishing vessels. It provides that only ratings who are qualified or are trained under qualified supervision may form part of a navigational watch. The qualifications for a navigational watch rating are set out in Schedule 1 to the Regulation.
Under the regulation it is an offence for an employer to fail to ensure that sufficient qualified ratings are carried to enable the master to perform his duties, and it is an offence for the master to permit an unqualified rating to form part of a navigational watch.
The Merchant Shipping (Seafarers) (Medical Stores) Regulation requires every Hong Kong registered ship to carry medicines and other medical stores appropriate to the type and length of voyage, and the geographical area into which it is proposed to trade in accordance with the standards, package, labelling and storage of the medical stores prescribed therein.
The Medicines and medical stores are required to bear a label indicating the date after which the contents should not be used, and shall be replaced as soon as possible after the expiry date and in any event within three months.
A ship may be inspected and detained if the requirements of the regulation are
not met.
The Merchant Shipping (Seafarers) (Certificates of Competency as A.B.) Rules specify the qualifications for the issue of a certificate of competency as A.B. (Able seaman/rating), the requirements to be complied with by an applicant for the examination, the qualifying sea service for the granting of a certificate of competency as A.B., and the extent to which the period of qualifying sea service may be reduced in the case of the persons who have undergone a course of pre-sea training at a nautical training school.