Merchant Shipping Act, 1951 (Act No. 57 of 1951)Chapter V : Safety of Ships and Life at SeaPart III : Safety of navigation236. Carriage of grain |
| (1) | Whenever grain is loaded in any port in the Republic on board any ship, wherever she may be registered, or is loaded on board a South African ship in any port outside the Republic, the owner or the master of the ship, or any agent of the owner who is charged with the loading or with sending the ship to sea laden with the grain, shall take all precautions prescribed by regulation to prevent the grain from shifting and in addition shall take all other precautions to prevent the grain from shifting which in the circumstances are necessary and reasonable; and if all such precautions are not taken, the ship shall be deemed to be unseaworthy. |
[Section 236(1) substituted by section 43 of Act No. 40 of 1963]
| (2) | Whenever any ship, wherever she may be registered, having been loaded with grain outside the Republic without the taking of all such precautions as are referred to in subsection (1), enters any port in the Republic so laden, the owner or master of the ship shall be guilty of an offence and the ship shall be deemed to be unseaworthy: Provided that this subsection shall not have effect if the ship would not have entered any such port but for stress of weather or any other circumstances that neither the master nor the owner nor the charterer (if any) could have prevented or forestalled. |
[Section 236(2) substituted by section 43 of Act No. 40 of 1963]
| (3) | Subsections (1) and (2) shall not apply in respect of a ship loaded in all respects in accordance with any provisions approved by the Authority in the special case. |
| (4) | On the arrival at a port in the Republic from a port outside the Republic of any ship, wherever she may be registered, carrying a cargo of grain, the master shall cause to be delivered to the proper officer a notice stating— |
| (a) | the draught of water and freeboard of the said ship after the loading of her cargo was completed at the final port of loading; and |
| (b) | the following particulars of the grain carried, namely,— |
| (i) | the kind of grain and the quantity thereof, stated in cubic feet, bushels, or tons weight; |
| (ii) | the mode in which the grain is stowed; and |
| (iii) | the precautions taken to prevent the grain from shifting. |
[Section 236(4) substituted by section 43 of Act No. 40 of 1963]
| (5) | In this section the word "grain" includes wheat, maize, oats, rye, barley, rice, pulses, seeds and processed forms thereof, whose behaviour during transport in bulk is similar to that of grain in its natural state, and in subsection (4) the expression "ship carrying a cargo of grain" means a ship carrying a quantity of grain exceeding one-third of the ship's net register tonnage, reckoning 2,83 cubic metres or two tonne mass of grain as equivalent to one ton of net register tonnage. |
[Section 236(5) substituted by section 7 of Act No. 3 of 1981]