Merchant Shipping Act (Cap. 234), article 35

35. (1) Where the property in a r egistered ship or a share therein is transmitted on the death of any owner to a person qualified to own a Maltese ship, that person shall make and sig n a declaration (in this Act called a "declaration of transmission" ) identifying the ship and containing the several statements requ ired by article 33 to be contained in a declaration of transfer, or as near thereto as circumstances per mit, and such declaration of transmission shall be accompan ied by such evidence of the transmission as would be acceptable by a competent court as pro of of such transmission. (2) On receipt of the declar ation of transmission so accompanied, the registrar shall enter in the register the name of the person entitled under the transmission as owner of the ship or share the property in which has b een transmitted and, where the re is more than one such person, shall enter the name of all those persons. (3) Where the property in a registered ship or share therein is transmitted on the death of any owner to a person not qualified to own a Maltese ship - (a) the Civil Court, First Hall, may on an application by the unqualified person order a sale of the property so transmitted and direct that the proceeds of the sale, after deducting the expenses thereof, be paid to the person entitled under the transmission or otherwise as the court directs; (b) the court may require any evidence in support of the application it thinks requisite, and may make the order on any terms and conditions it thinks just, or may refuse to make the order, and generally may act in the case as the justice of the case requires; (c) every such application for sale must be made within four weeks after the occurrence of the death in consequence of which the transmission has taken place, or within such further time, not exceeding in the whole one year from the date of the occurrence, as the court may allow; (d) if an application is not made within the time aforesaid, or if the court refuses an order for sale, or if notwithstanding the sale the ship is not owned wholly by persons qualified to own a Maltese ship, the ship shall cease to be a Maltese ship. Transfer of ship or sale by order of court.