Merchant Shipping Act (Cap. 234), article 290

290. (1) Where grain is loaded on board any Maltese ship, or is loaded within any port in Malta on board any ship, all neces sary and reasonable precautions shall be taken to prevent the grain from shifting; and if such precautions as aforesaid are not taken, t he owner, or bareboat charterer or the master of the ship, or any agent of the owner, or bareboat charterer who was charged with the loading or with sending the ship to sea laden with the grain, s hall be guilty of an offence under this sub-article and the ship sha ll be deemed, for the purpos es of this Part of this Act, to be unsafe by reason of improper loading. (2) Where any ship, having been loaded with grain outside Malta without taking all necessary and reasonable precautions t o prevent the grain from shifting, enters any port in Malta so la den, the owner, or bareboat charterer, or master of the ship shall b e guilty of an offence under this sub-article and the ship shall be deem ed for 144 CAP. 234.] MERCHANT SHIPPING the purposes of this Part of this Act to be unsafe by reason of improper loading: Provided that this sub-article shall not have effect if the ship would not have entered any such port but for stress of wea ther or any other circumstances which neither the master nor the own er nor the charterer (if any) could have prevented or forestalled. (3) Without prejudice to the gen erality of the two preceding sub-articles, any particular precaution prescribed by rules mad e by the Minister under this sub-article, in relation to the loading of ships generally or of ships of any class, as being a precaution to be treated for the purposes of those sub-articles as a necessary o r reasonable precaution to prevent g rain from shifting, shall be so treated in the case of ships generally or of ships of that clas s, as the case may be: Provided that this sub-article shall not apply when a ship is loaded in accordance in all respect s with any provisions approv ed by the Minister as respects the loading in question other than rules made under this sub-article. (4) If any person commits an offence under sub-article (1) or sub-article (2), he shall for each offence be liable to a fine (multa) not exceeding thr ee hundred units. (5) On the arrival at any port in Malta from a port outside Malta of any ship carrying a cargo of grain, the master shall c ause to be delivered to the Minister a n otice stating - (a) the draught of water and freeboard, as defined by this Part of this Act, of the said ship after the loading of her cargo was completed at the f inal port of loading; and (b) the following particulars of the grain carried, namely - (i) the kind of grain and the quantity thereof, stated in metric units of volume or weight; (ii) the mode in which th e grain is stowed; and (iii) the precautions taken t o prevent the grain from shifting; and if the master fails to deliv er any notice required by this sub- article, or if in any such noti ce he makes any statement that h e knows to be false in a material particular or recklessly makes any statement that is false in any material particular, he shall fo r each offence be liable to a fine ( multa) not exceeding on e hundred units. (6) Any person having a general or special authority in that behalf from the Minister may, for securing the observance of th e provisions of this article, inspect any grain and the mode in w hich it is stowed, and for those purposes he shall have all the powe rs of a surveyor of ships. (7) In this article, the expression "grain" includes wheat, maize, oats, rye, barley, rice, pulses and seeds; and the expre ssion "ship carrying a cargo of grain" means a ship car rying a quanti ty of grain exceeding one-third of the ship’s registered tonnage, reckoning one hundred cubic feet or two tons weight of grain as M E R C H A N T S H I P P I N G [CAP. 234. 145 equivalent to one ton of registered tonnage. Saving for other enactments relating to dangerous goods.