Hong Kong Ordinances

MERCHANT SHIPPING (SAFETY) ORDINANCE - SECT 99

Regulations for life-saving and fire-fighting appliances

(Past version on 01/07/2002).
(Past version on 30/06/1997).

For the saving and transitional provisions relating to the amendments made by
the Resolution of the Legislative Council (L.N. 130 of 2007), see paragraph
(12) of that Resolution.

(1) The Secretary for Transport and Housing may make regulations with respect
to all or any of the following matters- (Amended 20 of 1996 s. 9; L.N. 106 of
2002; L.N. 130 of 2007)

   (a)  the number, description and mode of construction of the boats, life
        rafts, line-throwing appliances, life-jackets and lifebuoys to be
        carried by ships, according to the classes in which the ships are
        arranged;

   (b)  the equipment to be carried by any such boats and rafts and the
        methods to be provided to get the boats and other life-saving
        appliances into the water, including oil for use in stormy weather;

   (c)  the provision in ships of a proper supply of lights and smoke signals,
        inextinguishable in water and fitted for attachment to lifebuoys;

   (d)  the quantity, quality and description of buoyant apparatus to be
        carried on board ships, either in addition to or in substitution for
        boats, life rafts, life-jackets and lifebuoys;

   (e)  the position and means of securing the boats, life rafts,
        life-jackets, lifebuoys and buoyant apparatus;

   (f)  the marking of the boats, life rafts and buoyant apparatus so as to
        show their dimensions and the number of persons authorized to be
        carried on them;

   (g)  the manning of the lifeboats and the qualifications and certificates
        of lifeboatmen;

   (h)  the provision to be made for mustering the persons on board and for
        embarking them in the boats, including provision for the lighting of,
        and the means of ingress to and egress from different parts of the
        ship;

   (i)  the provision of suitable means situated outside the engine-room
        whereby any discharge of water into the boats can be prevented;

   (j)  the assignment of specific duties to each member of the crew in the
        event of emergency;

   (k)  the methods to be adopted and the appliances to be carried in ships
        for the prevention, detection and extinction of fire;

   (l)  the provision in ships of plans or other information relating to the
        means of preventing, detecting, controlling and extinguishing outbreak
        of fire;

   (m)  the practice in ships of boat-drills and fire-drills;

   (n)  the provision in ships of means of making effective distress-signals
        by day and by night;

   (o)  the provision, in ships on voyages in which pilots are likely to be
        embarked, of suitable mechanical hoists, pilot-ladders, and of ropes,
        lights and other appliances designed to make the use of such hoists
        and ladders safe; and

   (p)  the examination and maintenance at intervals to be prescribed by the
        regulations of any appliances or equipment required by the regulations
        to be carried.

(2) The life-saving appliances regulations and the fire-fighting 
appliances regulations shall include such requirements as appear to the
Secretary for Transport and Housing to be necessary to implement the
provisions of the Convention and the Simla Rules 1931 or any replacement of
those Rules relating to the matters referred to in subsection (1). (Amended 20
of 1996 s. 9; L.N. 106 of 2002; L.N. 130 of 2007)

(3) This section applies to-

   (a)  ships registered in Hong Kong; and

   (b)  other ships while they are within the waters of Hong Kong: Provided
        that this section shall not apply to a ship by reason of its being
        within the waters of Hong Kong if it would not have been in such
        waters but for stress of weather or other circumstance which neither
        the master nor the owner of the ship could have prevented or
        forestalled.