CO129-536-10 Need for leglisation concerning number of certificated officers carried on passenger ships 18-11-1931 - 15-6-1932 — Page 44

85

66

QUESTION 2

""

9

of the watch and on whom rests for the time being the special responsibility on deck for directing the ship's movements. In other words, the idea of "in charge of a watch" in the expression to be defined requires to be expressed in the definition itself. This object might be attained, perhaps, by adding for the time being to correspond to the time conception of "a watch and by substituting "controls the navigation" for "is navigat- ing" to correspond to "in charge of ". This latter modi- fication, incidentally, would bring the English and French versions of the Questionnaire formula more into line, the French version using "qui est chargée de la navigation "where the English uses "who is navigating The complete new formula would thus be: "any person, not being a pilot, who for the time being controls the naviga- tion of a vessel.

""

(c) Chief engineer. The only observations to note on the definition on this point in the Questionnaire

any person permanently responsible for the engine- room staff " are contained in the Australian and

66

Belgian replies.

The Australian Government proposes the following formula - "Any person permanently responsible for the propelling machinery of the ship and in control of the engine-room staff "; while the formula proposed by the Belgian Government is Any person permanently responsible for the running of a ship's propelling or other machinery

•

દુઃ

As regards the Belgian formula, it may be observed that the definition of the Questionnaire is not intended to exclude any responsibility a chief engineer may also have for other machinery on board besides the propelling machinery. Any such additional responsibility, however, would hardly be relevant to the special purposes of the Draft Convention at present under consideration, and it is therefore perhaps preferable to confine the definition to the more important part of his responsibility with which alone the Draft Convention is concerned, viz. his responsibility for the propelling machinery of the vessel.

In the light of the Australian formula, it would appear that the drafting of the definition in the Questionnaire might be improved. For the purposes of the Draft Convention the control of the chief engineer over the

20