SURVEY OF SHIPS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 67, 21 March 1933, Page 8

SURVEY OF SHIPS

WHAT IT MEANS

VARIOUS CLASSES

From time to time mention is made in the shipping columns of a ship being laid up at Wellington for annual overhaul and survey. Most people knowthat the ship in question is- withdrawn from service while she receives attention during her annual survey. This article "is written to explain the various processes of survey, and what is done to the ship. ' A vessel is said to undergo a complete survey when she is placed in dry dpok for inspection and ■ overhaul 'throughout by the representatives- of a duly constituted authority representing the Government or Lloyd's Register of Shipping or the British Corporation for the Registry of Shipping. LLOYD'S SURVEY. Steel ships built in accordance with Lloyd's rules, or with alternative arrangements equivalent thereto, are classed so long as they are found upon careful annual and periodical surveys to be in a fit and efficient condition for the safe conveyance of dry and perishable cargoes. The principal classes assigned are:—"looA," "100 A carrying petroleum in bulk," "100 A with freeboard," "100 A for special service," "A, for special service." All repairs of vessels, engines, and boilers that may be required in order that they may retain their character in the society's register book must be carried out under the inspection and to the satisfaction of a Lloj'd's surveyor when one is stationed in the district. Where such repairs are effected at, a port where there is no surveyor to the society, the vessel must be surveyed by one of these surveyors at the earliest opportunity. When Lloyd's surveyors consider repairs necessary they are respectfully to communicate their recommendations in writing to th 6 owners, agents, or master, and if such repairs are not undertaken within a reasonable time, a report is to be made out as soon as possible to the committee. Interested parties considering the recommendations of the society's surveyors as to the construction or repair of a vessel to be in any case unnecessary or unreasonable are entitled to appeal to the committee, who will direct a special survey to bo made, but should the opinion of the surveyors be confirmed by the committee the expense of the special survey is to be borne by the appealing party. The British Corporation's requirements in connection with the survey and classification of steel vessels .are very similar to those required by Lloyd's Eegister. The regulations laid down by the New Zealand Government are largely on the lines of the Board of Trade regulations, and are also similar to those required by Lloyd's Eegister and the British Corporation. v The Commonwealth Government's requirements are also very much on the same lines on those, already mentioned. WORK DONE DURING SURVEY. During survey thorough inspection is made .of the hull, rudder, propellers, shafts, holds, machinery spaces, boilers, bilges, bulkheads, anchors' and chain cable, masts and rigging, lights and distress signals, nautical instruments, lifeboats and all life-saving gear, winches, and dynamos. The master and officers', engineers', and all crew's quarters are painted throughout. A complete fumigation of all. portions of the ship is made for the destruction of vermin, and in the case of vessels engaged in the intercolonial and foreign trades deratisation certificates are issued under the provisions ,of the International Sanitary Convention. When special circumstances warrant it a permit is granted by the licensing authority for a "running ,survey," whereby the survey work is divided into sections, and carried-out from time to time according to arrangement. All surveys are. subject to the requirements of the Merchant Shipping (Safety and Load ,Line Conventions) Act, 1932. The provisions of both conventions came into force on January 1, 1933, the load line regulations operating forthwith with respect to vessels registered in the United Kingdom, but a year's grace is granted with regard to the application of the Safety Convention rules which are to bo observed from and including January 1, 1934.

When a survey has been completed to the entire satisfaction of the surveyors of the licensing authority a certificate is issued certifying that the vessel is in a lit and proper condition to pursue her calling as a carrier of passengers and cargoes. , ,