LIFE-SAVING APPLIANOES.—Certain rules known as the Rules for Life-saving Appliances are made by the Board of Trade under the authority of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894. These rules are concerned with some or all of the following matters :—(a) The arranging of British ships into classes, having regard to the services in which they are employed, to the nature and duration of the voyage, and to the number of persons carried ; (b) the number and description of the boats, life-boats, life-rafts, life-jackets, and life-buoys to be carried by British ships, according to the class in which they are arranged and the mode of their construction, also the equipments to be carried by the boats and rafts, and the methods to be provided to get the boats and other life-saving appliances into the water, which methods may include oil for use in stormy weather; and (c) the quantity, quality, and description of buoyant apparatus to be carried on board British ships carrying passengers, either in addition to or in substitution for boats, life boats, life-rafts, life-jackets, and life-buoys. These rules are laid before Parliament as soon as they are made, and do not come into operation until they have lain there forty days during a session ; on coming into operation they have the effect of an Act of Parliament. They never apply to a fishing-boat for the time being entered in the fishing-boat register. The owner and master of every British ship are bound to see that their ship is provided, in accordance with these rules, with such of the appliances as, having regard to the nature of the service on which the ship is employed and the avoidance of undue encumbrance of the ship's deck, are best adapted for securing the safety of her crew and passengers. A surveyor of ships
can inspect a ship, and must give a written notice of a deficiency to the master or owner, and point out what is requisite to remedy the deficiency. The notice is also communicated to the chief officer of customs of the port, so that the deficiency may be made good before the ship can obtain a clearance or transire. The owner of a ship (if in fault) is liable for each of certain offences to a fine of 1'100, and the master (if in fault) to a fine of ..L'50. These offences are Allowing the ship to proceed on a voyage or excursion without being provided according to the rules ; (b) wilfully and negligently allowing an appliance to be lost or rendered unfit for use in the course of the voyage ; (c) wilfully and negligently failing to repair and replace a loss or damage at the first opportunity ; (d) not keeping an appliance at all times fit and ready for use. By the Merchant Shipping Act, 1906, these rules now apply to foreign ships while in a port of the United Kingdom, and also in certain other cases to such ships. In regard to MINES, the Home Secretary, under the Mines Accidents Act, 1910, can issue an Order as to organisation for accidents.