### Merchant Shipping (Local Vessels) Ordinance 《商船(本地船隻)條例》

27. Application of collision regulations and use of signals of distress regulations
(1) Subject to any special provision in or under this Ordinance, the collision regulations and the use of signals of distress regulations shall apply to all local vessels wherever they may be, and shall, for the purpose of their application by virtue of this section, be read and construed as if references to “ships” were references to “local vessels within the meaning of the Merchant Shipping (Local Vessels) Ordinance (Cap. 548)” and references to “registered in Hong Kong” were deleted.
(2) If any of the collision regulations is contravened by a local vessel, the owner of the vessel, his agent, the coxswain and any person for the time being responsible for the conduct of the vessel shall each be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine at level 4.
(3) It shall be a defence to a charge under subsection (2) for the person charged to prove that he took all reasonable precautions to prevent the contravention to which the charge relates.
(4) If the coxswain of a vessel uses or displays or causes or permits any person under his authority to use or display—
(a) any signal prescribed by the collision regulations except in the circumstances and for the purposes prescribed by the use of signals of distress regulations; or
(b) any private signal, whether registered or not, which is liable to be mistaken for any signal prescribed by the collision regulations,
he commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine at level 4 and shall further be liable to pay compensation for any labour undertaken, risk incurred or loss sustained in consequence of the signal having been supposed to be a signal of distress; and that compensation may, without prejudice to any other remedy, be recovered in the same manner as salvage.

28. Port clearance to be obtained before departure
(1) Subject to subsection (2), no local vessel shall depart the waters of Hong Kong unless there is in relation to the vessel a valid port clearance in writing obtained in the prescribed manner.
(2) Subsection (1) shall not apply—
(a) to any vessel for the time being used for any purpose by the Government;
(b) to any vessel of a class that is exempted by the Director by notice in the Gazette from the operation of this section; or
(c) to any vessel that is obliged to leave any port or the waters of Hong Kong due to weather conditions, or other circumstances beyond the control of its coxswain, in the interests of safety of the vessel, its cargo, crew or passengers.
(3) If subsection (1) is contravened, the coxswain commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine at level 3 and to imprisonment for 6 months.

### Merchant Shipping (Local Vessels) Ordinance 《商船(本地船隻)條例》

29. Assistance to be rendered in event of collision
(1) Where two vessels collide and either of those vessels is a local vessel it shall be the duty of the coxswain or person in charge of the local vessel involved in the collision, if and so far as he can do so without danger to his own vessel, crew and passengers, if any—
(a) to render to the other vessel, the coxswain, crew and passengers, if any, such assistance as may be practicable and may be necessary to save them from any danger caused by the collision, and to stay by the other vessel until he has ascertained that there is no need of further assistance; and
(b) to give to the coxswain or person in charge of the other vessel—
(i) the name of his vessel;
(ii) the name of the port to which it belongs; and
(iii) the names of the ports from which it comes and to which it is bound.
(2) If the coxswain or person in charge of any vessel involved in a collision fails without reasonable cause to comply with subsection (1), he commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine at level 5.

30. Unseaworthy vessels
Any owner, agent or coxswain who permits a local vessel to operate while it is in an unseaworthy or unsafe condition, whether by reason of overloading or from any other cause whatsoever, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine at level 5 and to imprisonment for 2 years.

31. Cutting of moorings
Any person, other than the Director or a person authorized by him, who without lawful excuse cuts a mooring or fastening of a local vessel commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine at level 2.

32. Endangering the safety of others
Any person (wherever he may be) who by any unlawful act, or in any manner whatsoever without reasonable excuse, endangers or causes to be endangered the safety of any person conveyed in or being in or upon any local vessel or in the sea commits an offence and is liable—
(a) on conviction on indictment to a fine of $200,000 and to imprisonment for 4 years; and
(b) on summary conviction to a fine of $200,000 and to imprisonment for 2 years.

### Merchant Shipping (Local Vessels) Ordinance 《商船(本地船隻)條例》

33. Scuttling or beaching vessel
Any person who, by any unlawful act or in any manner whatsoever without reasonable excuse—
(a) disables, abandons, scuttles or beaches any local vessel within the waters of Hong Kong; or
(b) fails to notify the Director thereof within 24 hours immediately following that disablement, abandonment, scuttling or beaching,
commits an offence and is liable—
(i) on conviction on indictment to a fine of $200,000 and to imprisonment for 4 years; and
(ii) on summary conviction to a fine of $200,000 and to imprisonment for 2 years.

34. Use of port facilities
(1) Subject to any other provisions of this Ordinance, no person shall use a port facility otherwise than for the purpose for which it is provided.
(2) Any person who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine at level 2.

35. Damage, etc., to aids to navigation
(1) Any person who wilfully or negligently—
(a) removes, alters, damages, destroys, or interferes with, any aid to navigation or mooring; or
(b) makes fast to any aid to navigation,
commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine at level 2.
(2) If an offence under subsection (1) is committed by a person on or in respect of a local vessel, then, in addition to that person, the owner of the vessel, his agent and the coxswain of the vessel commit an offence and each of them is liable on conviction to a fine at level 2.

36. Liability for damage to port facilities, etc.
(1) Where any damage is caused by a local vessel to any port facility, pier, breakwater or other property owned by the Government, the owner of the vessel, his agent and the coxswain of the vessel shall, without prejudice to the liability for an offence under this Ordinance, be jointly and severally liable for any loss arising out of the damage to the extent that such loss is attributable to any fault on the part of the vessel or to any wilful or negligent act of any person on the vessel.
(2) Such loss may be recovered by the Director as a civil debt.