MERCHANT provisions. Penalty for obstructing inspecting officer shall not exceed £10. Section 22.-(1) After 1908 every British foreigngoing ship of 1,000 tons gross register, going to sea from any place in the British Islands, shall carry a duly certified cook, who can prove six months' service at sea in some capacity. (2) A cook to be certified must hold either a Board of Trade certificate of competency in cooking, a certificate by a school of cookery or institution approved by the Board, or a certificate of discharge showing at least two years' service as cook. (3) A cook shall be rated in the ship's articles as ship's cook, or cook and steward. (4) In the case of an emigrant ship, the ship's cook shall be in addition to the cook required by section 304 of the M.S.A., 1894. (5) The Board of Trade may, at its discretion, dispense with the requirements of this section, if satisfied that compliance is unnecessary. (6) For failure to comply with the provisions of this section, the master or owner shall be liable to a fine not exceeding £25. Prosecutions shall only be instituted by or with the approval of the Board of Trade. Part IV. Provisions for the Relief and Repatria 400 tion of Distressed Seamen, and Seamen left behind abroad. Section 23.-(1) If a seaman belonging to a British ship is left abroad, the master shall (a) Enter in the official log the amount of wages due, and the effects left. (b) Furnish the Board of Trade at the end of the voyage with accounts and vouchers of effects and wages, and of any expenses incurred by the master or owner due to desertion or absence without leave of a seaman. (2) Wages and effects, subject to deductions made under this section, shall be delivered to the proper officer, who shall give a receipt for them. (3) The proper officer shall allow the master such sum out of wages or effects as he thinks proper as reimbursement for expenses properly chargeable. The proper officer may require evidence as to the sums chargeable. (4) Surplus wages and effects shall be remitted by the proper officer as the Board of Trade may direct. (5) "Effects" include proceeds of sale of effects by proper officer. (6) The Board of Trade shall not be liable for anything done under this section, but where legal proceedings are taken in respect of wages and effects dealt with under this section, the Board shall comply with any order made by the Court respecting wages and effects remitted to the Board. (7) Any sums remitted under this section shall be paid into the Exchequer, and any sums payable by the Board under this section shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament. (8) For failure without reasonable cause to com MERCHANT ply with this section, the master shall be liable to a fine not exceeding £20 for each offence, but (by a recent amendment) the master shall not be liable where a seaman's effects are lost without his neglect. (9) The proper officer shall be (i.) At a port in the United Kingdom, a superintendent. (ii.) At a port in a British Possession, a superintendent or chief officer of the Customs. (iii.) At a port elsewhere the consulate officer. (10) This section shall not apply where wages due appear to be less than £5. See Seamen. Section 24.-Refer to Seamen. (1) Section 191, subsection 2, of M.S.A., 1894, is extended to apply to distressed foreign seamen. (2) Section 193 of M.S.A., 1894 (relating to the recovery of expenses incurred on account of distressed seamen), shall extend to all expenses incurred under this Act, except (a) Where distress is due to seaman's desertion or misconduct. (b) Where seaman has been discharged at the port at which he was shipped, or a neighbouring port. Section 25 relates to the expenses of maintenance and conveyance of injured seamen. Section 26 relates to seamen discharged and left behind abroad. Section 27.-Expenses incurred on account of distressed seamen may, in the case of loss or transfer of the vessel, be recovered from the person who was the owner at the time of such loss or transfer. Section 28.-The provisions of Part II. of the M.S.A., 1894, which relate to property of deceased seamen, shall be extended to apply to seamen or apprentices of a British ship, the voyage of which is to terminate out of the United Kingdom. Section 29 deals with the payment of fines in the case of a seaman discharged abroad. Part V.-Miscellaneous. Section 30.-The Commissioners of Customs have power to inquire into the title of any ship registered as a British ship to be so registered. Unless satisfactory evidence of title is given within 30 days, the ship is liable to forfeiture. Section 31 relates to the deduction of spaces used for the storage of provisions and water ballast in ascertaining a ship's register tonnage (q.v.). Section 32.-In a foreign-going sailing ship of not more than 200 tons, the mate shall have a certificate not lower than that of second mate. Refer to Shipmate. Section 33.-(1) The qualifications for the title of Able-bodied seaman (q.v.) are reduced by one year. (2) A seaman making a misrepresentation, for the purpose of rating as A.B., shall be liable to a fine not exceeding £5. Section 34.-If a master disrate a seaman, he shall enter it in the official log, and furnish seaman with a copy of the entry. There shall be no reduction of MERCHANTS wages till after entry in log and furnishing of copy. Section 35.Where a lawfully engaged seaman has wilfully failed to join his ship, the Board of Trade, may, on report of the superintendent, direct that his certificate of discharge be withheld. Section 36 deals with the powers of a Naval Court (section 483, M.S.A., 1894) to send home to undergo sentence a person sentenced to imprisonment. This section may be applied by Order in Council to any British possession the Legislature of which consents to its application. Section 37 substitutes ship surveyor for shipwright surveyor. (1) Any person appointed to be a surveyor of ships under section 724, M.S.A., 1894, may be appointed as a ship surveyor, or as an engineer surveyor, or as both. (2) Survey by a ship surveyor and an engineer surveyor, required under section 272 of M.S.A., 1894, may be made by the same person. Section 38.-(1) The master of every ship carrying passengers to or from any place in the United Kingdom shall furnish the person appointed by the Board of Trade with returns showing the number of passengers carried in each class. (2) Passengers shall furnish the master with any information necessary for such returns. (3) The penalty for failure to make returns, or for making false returns, or for failure to give information required shall not exceed £20 for each offence. Section 39.-The Board of Trade may exempt any ship from any requirement of the Merchant Shipping Acts, if satisfied that the requirement has been substantially complied with, or that it is necessary. (1) Extends to owners and hirers of lighters and barges the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Acts, 1894-1900, which relate to the limitation of a shipowner's liability. (2) A lighter or barge measured and registered in accordance with the Thames Watermen's and Lightermen's Act (1893), shall be deemed measured and registered in accordance with the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Acts, 1894-1900. (3) Section 633 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, which absolves a shipowner from liability for loss or damage occasioned by the fault of a compulsory pilot, is repealed. Section 40.—(1) The Board of Trade may appoint advisory committees. (2) Members of such committees shall be paid travelling expenses and allowances out of money provided by Parliament. Merchants' Marine Insurance Co., Ltd. Registered June 12, 1871, with an authorised capital of £500,000, called up £125,000, in 50,000 shares of £10 each, £2 10s. paid. Dividend paid 12% per cent. per annum. Reserve fund, £150,000. The directors of the company are Ralph Collingwood Forster (Chairman), Hermann Wilmot Uloth (deputy chairman), James Brown Westray, William Lindsay Alexander, John Stewart Gladstone, Harry Percy Henty, H. A. McPherson, R. M. Stewart, Akroyd Hyslop; secretary, Alfred Dawson. Offices: 37 Cornhill, London, E.C. Meridian. An imaginary circle passing through the poles and zenith, and cutting the equator at right-angles. Mermaid. British torpedo-boat destroyer. (Hebburn, 1898.) Length, 210 ft.; beam, 21 ft.; draught, 8 ft.; displacement, 308 tons; complement, 62; armament, 1 12-pdr., 5 6-pdr., 2 tubes; twin screw; Hp., 6,000 = 30 kts.; coal, 82 tons. Mermaid's purse. See Skate. Merrimac. Ship. See Hampton Roads, Battle of. Mersea Sailing Club. Established 1899. Captain, R. Frost-Smith; Vice-Captain, G. E. Roberts; Honorary Treasurer, P. Moodie; Honorary Secretary, John H. Smith, R.N., West Mersea, Essex. Entrance fee, 5s.; annual subscription, 5s. Mersey Sailing Club. Established 1883, at Rock Ferry. Burgee: White, with a blue line. Commodore, T. J. Walmesley; Vice-Commodore, T. Henry Wood; Captain, F. W. Whiteley; Honorary Treasurer, J. H. Eglen; Honorary Secretary, G. S. Mathews. Annual subscription, 10s. 6d. Merz, Charles Hesterman Merz (b. Newcastle, 1874). Educated privately, and at Armstrong College, Newcastle; Durham University. Served his apprenticeship with Messrs. Robey, Lincoln. After being engaged for some time upon the erection of machinery at the Bankside station of the City of London Electric Lighting Co., he left to take up the post of resident engineer at Croydon Electricity Works. Upon their completion, he was appointed to the Cork Electric Tramways and Lighting Co., where he supervised the construction and organisation of that undertaking, to which his firm subsequently acted for some years as consulting engineers. At the end of 1899 he was appointed consulting engineer to the Walker and Wallsend Union Gas Co., in connection with their power scheme, which afterwards became incorporated with that of the Newcastle-on-Tyne Electric Supply Co., for the design and general supervision of whose system, known as the Tyneside Power Scheme, he has since been responsible. This undertaking, the first in this country to supply cheap electricity for power and traction purposes on a large scale, has recently become affiliated to the County of Durham Electric Power Supply Co., the County of Durham Electrical Power Distribution Co., and the Cleveland and Durham Electrical Power Co., to all of which his firm are engineers, and these companies are now supplying electricity for all purposes throughout the counties of Northumberland, Durham, and the North of Yorkshire. He advised the North-Eastern Railway Co. with regard to the electrification of their Tynemouth lines, and the driving and lighting of their work shops and stations in the neighbourhood of Newcastle, and the work was carried out under the supervision of his firm. Having given evidence before the Select Committee on Power Bills in 1900, and having subsequently devoted considerable time to and made a special study of the problem of electric power supply in London, he became adviser to the promoters of the Administrative County of London and District Electric Power Bill which, in the year 1905, successfully passed the Committee stage in the House of Lords and House of Commons, but failed to become law through lack of time required to obtain third reading in the House of Commons. He has also been appointed by the Victorian Government to report upon the proposed electrification of the suburban lines round Melbourne. Publications: Various papers contributed to learned societies, including one on "Power Station Design,” read before the Institution of Electrical Engineers, and one on the electrification of the North-Eastern Railway, read before the British Association. Mesdag, Hendrik Willem (1831-1905). Dutch marine painter (b. Groningen). In 1869 he settled at The Hague, where most of his works are to be seen. There are also examples at Rotterdam and in the Luxemburg, Paris. Mesh. A space or interstice between the threads of a net. Mess. Applied to any company of officers or crew of a ship who eat, drink, and associate together. Messageries Maritimes, the principal passenger steamship line in France, is the outcome of a small concern, formed for inland mail carriage. In 1851 a contract was entered into with the French Government for the carrying of mails to Italy, Egypt, Syria, Levant and Greece, and 10 years later the Indian Mail contract was secured. This company maintains a service every 28 days to Australia and New Zealand, via Aden, Bombay and Colombo, transhipping at Colomba for China; a fortnightly service is maintained to Aden for Jibuti, Colombo, Singapore, Saigon, China, and Japan, with monthly connections for Pondicherry and Calcutta, and fortnightly for Java and the Tonkin ports. They also maintain a monthly service to Aden, Egypt, Mahé (Seychelles), Madagascar and Mauritius, connecting at Diego Suarez for the east and west coast of Madagascar; a fortnightly service from Bordeaux to Brazil and River Plate, with a steamer once a month for cargo only. Cargo steamers are run from Antwerp to the Far East every two months, and Marseilles every month to the French possessions in Indo-China. Adour. FLEET. Cachar. Caledonien. Cao-bang. Charente. Chili. Colombo. Congo. METEOR Magellan. Manche. Melbourne. Cordillere. Cordouan. Nera. Amazone. Annam. Armand-Behic. Atlantique. Australien. 4 Above water. Bagdad. Twin screw. Hp. 2,600-21 kts. Coal maxi Bosphore. mum 120 tons. |