### Merchant Shipping (Registration) Ordinance 《商船(註冊)條例》

11. Registrable ships
(1) Subject to this Ordinance, a ship is registrable if—
(a) a majority interest in the ship is owned by one or more qualified persons; or
(b) the ship is operated under a demise charter by a body corporate being a qualified person (whether or not a majority interest in the ship is owned by one or more qualified persons),
and a representative person is appointed in relation to the ship.
(2) A registered ship ceases to be registrable if—
(a) being a ship registered by virtue of subsection (1)(a), a majority interest in the ship ceases to be owned by one or more qualified persons;
(b) being a ship registered by virtue of subsection (1)(b)—
(i) the ship ceases to be operated under a demise charter by a body corporate being a qualified person (whether by reason of the termination of the demise charter or otherwise);
(ii) the ship or any share in or part of the ship is transferred or transmitted; or
(iii) the rights of the demise charterer under the demise charter are assigned under a sub-demise charter; (Amended 9 of 2001 s. 3)
(c) the ship is taken in war or hostilities, as a result of which the owner or demise charterer has lost control over the operation of the ship;
(d) the ship is broken up, or is an actual or constructive total loss such that it is no longer capable of being used in navigation;
(e) the ship at the time of registration remains registered in a place outside Hong Kong;
(f) the ship subsequently becomes registered in a place outside Hong Kong; or
(g) a representative person ceases to be appointed in relation to the ship.
(3) For the purposes of this section, one or more persons shall be treated as owning a majority interest in a ship if there is vested in that person or in those persons, taken together, the legal title to more than one half of the shares or parts into which the property in the ship is divided for the purposes of registration, there being left out of account for this purpose any share or part which is jointly owned by a person other than a qualified person.
(4) The following are qualified persons for the purposes of this section—
(a) an individual who holds a valid identity card and who is ordinarily resident in Hong Kong;
(b) a body corporate incorporated in Hong Kong; and
(c) a registered non-Hong Kong company as defined by section 2(1) of the Companies Ordinance (Cap. 622). (Amended 30 of 2004 s. 3; 28 of 2012 ss. 912 & 920)
(5) Nothing in this section shall derogate from or affect the provisions of Part IX or XI.

### Merchant Shipping (Registration) Ordinance 《商船(註冊)條例》

12. Registration of property in ships
For the purposes of registration of a ship—
(a) the interest in a ship may be divided into any number of shares or parts and any number of persons may be registered as owners of the ship or of a share in or part of the ship;
(b) any number of persons may be registered as joint owners of a ship or of any share in or part of the ship, but any such joint owner is not entitled to dispose of his interest in severalty; and
(c) a body corporate shall be registered as owner by its corporate name.

### Merchant Shipping (Registration) Ordinance 《商船(註冊)條例》

13. Tonnage regulations
(1) The Chief Executive in Council may make regulations— (Amended 64 of 1999 s. 3)
(a) providing for persons or bodies to be, or to be authorized by the Director to be, Certifying Authorities for the purposes of the regulations;
(b) providing for the measurement and survey of ships for the purpose of ascertaining tonnage to be undertaken, in such circumstances as may be specified in the regulations, by or on behalf of a Certifying Authority;
(c) providing for the issue by Certifying Authorities of certificates of register tonnage or net tonnage of any ship or of the tonnage which is to be taken for any purpose specified in the regulations as the tonnage of a ship not registered in Hong Kong and for the cancellation and delivery up of such certificates in such circumstances as may be prescribed by the regulations;
(d) providing for assigning to a ship, either instead of or as an alternative to the tonnage ascertained in accordance with the other provisions of the regulations, a lower tonnage applicable where the ship is not loaded to the full depth to which it can be safely loaded, and for indicating on the ship, by such mark as may be specified in the regulations, that such a lower tonnage has been assigned to it and, where it has been assigned to it as an alternative, the depth to which the ship may be loaded for the lower tonnage to be applicable;
(e) providing for the alteration of the particulars relating to the register tonnage or net tonnage of a ship;
(f) prohibiting or restricting the carriage of goods or stores in spaces not included in the register tonnage or net tonnage of a ship;
(g) making different provision for different descriptions of ships or for the same description of ships in different circumstances;
(h) making any provision of the regulations dependent on compliance with such conditions, to be evidenced in such manner, as may be specified in the regulations;
(i) providing for the payment of fees to Certifying Authorities;
(j) providing that where any provision of the regulations is contravened, the owner or master, or each of them, commits an offence and is liable to a fine at level 2.(Amended E.R. 2 of 2014)
(2) When the tonnage of any ship has been ascertained and registered in accordance with the tonnage regulations it shall thenceforth be deemed to be the tonnage of the ship, and shall be repeated in every subsequent registration thereof, unless any alteration is made in the form or capacity of the ship, or unless it is discovered that the tonnage has been erroneously computed; and in either of those cases the ship shall be remeasured, and its tonnage determined and registered according to the tonnage regulations.

### Merchant Shipping (Registration) Ordinance 《商船(註冊)條例》

14. Tonnage and description of ships
(1) Where a ship is to be registered—
(a) an authorized surveyor shall—
(i) ascertain the ship’s tonnage in accordance with the tonnage regulations; and
(ii) grant a certificate, in the specified form, specifying the ship’s tonnage and build, and such other particulars descriptive of the identity of the ship as may for the time being be required by the Director; and
(b) the owner or demise charterer of the ship shall cause the certificate to be delivered to the Registrar before the ship is registered.
(2) Subsection (1) shall not apply in relation to a ship which is to be provisionally registered.

15. Tonnage of ships registered, etc. outside Hong Kong
(1) The Chief Executive in Council may, where it appears to him that legislation to the same effect as the tonnage regulations is in force in any country, order that ships of that country shall, without being remeasured in Hong Kong, be deemed to be of the tonnage denoted in their respective certificates of registry or other national papers, in the same manner, to the same extent, and for the same purposes as the tonnage denoted in the certificate of registry of a ship registered under this Ordinance is deemed to be the tonnage of that ship.
(2) An order under subsection (1) shall be subject to such conditions and qualifications as may be specified in the order.
(3) The Chief Executive in Council may, where it appears to him that the tonnage of a ship of any country, as measured by the rules of that country, materially differs from its tonnage as measured under the tonnage regulations, order that, notwithstanding any order in force under subsection (1), any of the ships of that country may, for all or any purposes of this Ordinance, be remeasured in accordance with the tonnage regulations.
(Amended 64 of 1999 s. 3)