Powers of Director, etc.
Open ↗205.—(1) The Director, the Port Master, a Port Health Officer, a surveyor of ships or a police officer may, at any time, for the purposes of this Act —(a)
go on board any ship and inspect and examine the ship or any part of the ship or its equipment;
(b)
enter and inspect any premises;
(c)
require and enforce the production of any book, certificate or document relating to any ship or persons on board the ship;
(d)
muster all persons on board any ship;
(e)
summon any person before him or her and require the person to answer questions; and
(f)
require any ship to be taken into a dock for the purpose of surveying the hull.[6/2014]
(2) The Director may compound any offence under this Act that is prescribed as a compoundable offence by collecting from the person reasonably suspected of having committed the offence a sum not exceeding the lower of the following:(a)
one half of the amount of the maximum fine that is prescribed for the offence;
(b)
$2,000.[3/2019]
(3) On payment of the sum of money under subsection (2), no further proceedings are to be taken against that person in respect of the offence.[3/2019]
Powers of inspector
Open ↗206. An inspector and any person having the powers of such an inspector —(a)
have the powers conferred under section 205(1); and
(b)
may administer oaths or may, in lieu of requiring or administering an oath, require every person examined by him or her to make and subscribe to a declaration of the truth of the statements made by the person in the examination.
Power of arrest
Open ↗207.—(1) The Director, the Port Master, a Port Health Officer, a surveyor of ships or a police officer may arrest without warrant any person who has committed an offence under this Act and take him or her before a District Court or a Magistrate’s Court (as the case may be) to be dealt with according to law.
(2) Any article concerning, by or for which an offence has been committed may be seized and taken to a police station, unless given up sooner by order of a District Court or a Magistrate’s Court.
Power of General Division of High Court to remove master
Open ↗208.—(1) The General Division of the High Court may remove the master of any ship within the jurisdiction of the General Division of the High Court, if that removal is shown to the satisfaction of the General Division of the High Court by affidavit evidence to be necessary.[40/2019]
(2) The removal of the master under subsection (1) is to be made upon the application of any owner of the ship or the owner’s agent, or of the authorised agent of the ship, or of any certificated mate or engineer, or of one-third or more of the crew of the ship.
(3) The General Division of the High Court may appoint a new master in place of the one removed, but where the owner or agent of the ship is within the jurisdiction of the General Division of the High Court, such an appointment must not be made without the consent of the owner or agent.[40/2019]
(4) The General Division of the High Court may also make such order and require such security in respect of the costs of the matter as the General Division of the High Court thinks fit.[40/2019]
Enforcing detention of ship
Open ↗209.—(1) Where under this Act a ship is to be or may be detained, the Director, the Port Master, a surveyor of ships, a police officer not below the rank of inspector or a commissioned officer on full pay in the Singapore Armed Forces may detain the ship if it is in Singapore, and the ship may be detained until it complies with the provisions which it contravened.
(2) If the ship, after detention, or after service on the master of the ship of any notice of or order for detention, goes to sea before it is released by the competent authority, the owner and the master of the ship, and also any person who is party or privy to the offence, shall each be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $50,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both.
(3) Any person authorised under this section to detain a ship may, if he or she thinks it necessary to do so, place a police guard on board.
(4) Any police guard so placed on board a ship may take any steps that are necessary to prevent the ship from going to sea.
Issue of new document
Open ↗210.—(1) Where a document issued by the Director or the Registrar under this Act is mislaid, lost or destroyed, the following person (as applicable) must make a declaration stating the facts of the case to the best of the person’s knowledge and belief:(a)
in the case of a document which relates to a ship, the master or the owner of the ship;
(b)
in the case of a document which relates to a person, the person;
(c)
some other person having knowledge of the facts of the case,
and the Director or the Registrar may thereupon issue a new document in lieu of the original document.
(2) The declaration under subsection (1) must contain an undertaking to surrender to the Director or the Registrar the document declared mislaid, lost or destroyed, when the document is subsequently recovered.
(3) The Director or the Registrar may, on the delivery up to him or her of a document issued by him or her under this Act, issue a new document in lieu thereof.
Issue of certified copies or extracts
Open ↗211. The Director or the Registrar may issue certified copies of or extracts from any document issued by him or her or in his or her custody.
Copy of Act and regulations to be kept on Singapore ships
Open ↗212.—(1) The master of a Singapore ship which is propelled by mechanical means must keep a copy of this Act on board the ship, except that the master is not obliged to keep a copy of any regulations which do not apply to the ship.
(2) Any master who, without reasonable cause, contravenes this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $2,000.
Powers of Authority to prescribe fees, recovery of fees and application of moneys
Open ↗213.—(1) The Authority may, with the approval of the Minister, make regulations prescribing the fees to be paid in respect of the issue or recording of any certificate, licence or other instrument or the doing of any other thing pursuant to this Act.
(2) All fees prescribed under this Act are to be paid to the Director.
(3) All fees due to or which may be recovered by the Director under this Act are, without affecting any other remedy, recoverable as salvage is recoverable.
(4) In this section, “fees” includes —(a)
the fees prescribed under section 14;
(b)
the fines imposed on the seamen of a ship for disciplinary offences required by section 83 to be paid to the Director;
(c)
the fees in respect of survey or inspection of a ship or its equipment or other services rendered to or in relation to a ship by a surveyor of ships or a radio surveyor; and
(d)
the fees in respect of services rendered to or in relation to a ship by the Director or a person authorised by the Director.
(5) All moneys recovered or received under this Act must be paid to the Authority except that the annual tonnage tax paid under section 14(2) must be paid into the Consolidated Fund.
Documents to be in approved form
Open ↗214. Every register, certificate, licence, book, instrument or other document prescribed by this Act must be made in the form (if any) that may be approved by the Authority or as near thereto as circumstances permit.
Exemption
Open ↗215.—(1) The Minister may exempt any person or ship or description of persons or ships from all or any of the provisions of this Act.
(2) Any power conferred by this Act to provide for or grant an exemption includes the power to provide for or grant the exemption subject to conditions and to revoke the exemption.
Regulations
Open ↗216.—(1) The Authority may, with the approval of the Minister, make such regulations as are necessary for carrying into effect the provisions of this Act.
(2) Without limiting subsection (1), the Authority may, with the approval of the Minister, make regulations —(a)
to exempt any person or ship or description of persons or ships from all or any of the provisions of this Act;
(b)
to empower the Director to exempt any person or ship or description of persons or ships from all or any of the provisions of the regulations;
(c)
to prescribe the form of any document that may be required and to prescribe different forms for different circumstances;
(d)
to make different provision for different descriptions of persons or ships or for persons or ships of the same description in different circumstances;
(e)
to prescribe the offences that may be compounded;
(f)
to make provisions for any incidental or supplementary matters for which the Authority thinks it expedient for the purposes of the regulations to provide; and
(g)
to make a contravention of any provision of any regulation an offence punishable with a fine not exceeding $10,000.
Transitional provisions
Open ↗217.—(1) Every Singapore ship registered before 2 February 1996 is deemed to be registered under Part 2 of this Act and the provisions of this Act apply to the ship and all matters relating thereto as they apply to a ship registered on or after that date.
(2) Any document, endorsement, exemption or certificate prepared, made or granted under the repealed Merchant Shipping Act (Cap. 179, 1985 Revised Edition) is to, so far as it is not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act and except as otherwise expressly provided in this Act, continue and be deemed to have been prepared or granted under the corresponding provisions of this Act.
(3) Any reference to the Surveyor-General of Ships or Superintendent of the Mercantile Marine Office in any written law is to be read as a reference to the Director.
Source: Singapore Statutes Online (Attorney-General's Chambers), © Government of Singapore.
