167.
| (1) When a ship registered in Ceylon is marked with load lines, the ship shall not be so loaded that-
| | (a) if the ship is in salt water, and has no list, the appropriate load line on each side of the ship is submerged; | | |
| | (b) in any other case, such load line would be submerged, if the ship were in salt water and had no list. | | |
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| (2) If any ship is loaded in contravention of subsection (1), the owner or the master of the ship shall (subject to sub-section (3) ) be guilty of an offence and on conviction thereof shall be liable to a fine not-exceeding five hundred rupees, and to an additional fine (not exceeding ten rupees for each complete centimetre by which the load line is submerged) as the court may think fit to impose. |
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| (3) Where a person is charged with an offence under sub-section (1), it shall be a defence for him to prove that the contravention was due solely to deviation or delay which was caused by such stress of weather or such other circumstance that neither the master nor the owner nor the charterer (if any) could have prevented or forestalled. |
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| (4) Any ship which is loaded in contravention of sub-section (1) may be detained until such ship ceases to be so loaded. |
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Sri Lanka Consolidated Acts