Merchant Shipping - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition merchant-shipping

Definition :

Merchant shipping. The Acts relating to Merchant Shipping have been twice consolidated: first, in 1854, by 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104; and, secondly, in 1894, by the (English) Merchant Shipping Act, 1894 (57 & 58 Vict. c. 60), which contains 748 ss. and 22 schedules, the 22nd Schedule containing 48 repealed enactments.

By s. 713 of the (English) Act the Board of Trade exercises a general control over merchant shipping. Additions and amendments have been made to the Act of 1894 by various Acts, the most important of which re: the Merchant Shipping Acts, 1906,1907, 1911, 1920, and 1921; the Merchant Shipping (Stevedores and Trimmers) Act, 1911; the Merchant Shipping (Seamen's Allotment)Act, 1911; the Marine Conventions Act, 1911; Merchant Shipping (Certificates) Act, 1914; Merchant Shipping (Salvage)Act, 1916; Merchant Shipping (Wireless Telegraphy)Act, 1919; Merchant Shipping Acts (Amendment) Act, 1923; Fees (Increase) Act, 1923; Merchant Shipping (International Labour Conventions) Act, 1925; Merchant Shipping (Line Throwing Appliance) Act, 1928; Merchant Shipping (Safety and Lord Line Conventions) Act, 1932. The law of pilotage is now contained in the Pilotage Act, 1913 (2 & 3 Geo. 5, c. 31). See Chitty's Statutes, tit. 'Shipping,' and consult Temperley or Maclachlan on M.S. Acts.