Section 139Part 6 — PREVENTION OF COLLISIONS AND SAFETY OF NAVIGATION
Master to notify hazards to navigation
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139. (1) The master of any Cayman Islands ship, upon encountering any of the dangers to navigation specified in subsection (2), shall send information of the dangers by any means of communication at the master’s disposal to the appropriate shore based authorities via a coast radio station, as listed in the Admiralty List of Radio Signals Volume 1, and the information shall be repeated to any ships in the vicinity as may be practicable.
The dangers to navigation referred to in subsection (1) are —
dangerous ice;
a dangerous derelict;
a tropical storm;
air temperatures below freezing point associated with gale force winds causing severe ice accretion on the superstructure of ships;
winds of force 10 or above on the Beaufort scale for which no storm warning has been received; and
any other direct danger to navigation.
The information referred to in subsection (1) shall —
be sent on the authority of the master of the ship in English, or by means of the International Code of Signal and where —
it is transmitted by radio messages, it may be sent in one of the working languages of the International Telecommunication Union; and, Merchant Shipping Act, 2024 Section 140 c Act 1 of 2024 Page 87 Communication Phrases may be used; or
where language difficulties are encountered, the IMO Standard
when sent on the authority of the master of the ship by means of radio, be preceded by the safety signal or code sequence as prescribed by the radio regulations, and be in a format permitted under those regulations.
Every person in charge of a radio station in the Islands or on board any Cayman Islands ship shall, on receiving the signal prescribed in the regulations for indicating that a message is about to be sent under this section —
refrain from sending messages for a time sufficient to allow other stations to receive the message; and
if so required by the regulations made under subsection (1), transmit the message in the prescribed manner.
A person who being a master, fails to comply with this section, commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of five thousand dollars but it is a defence for a person so charged to show that the person took all reasonable precautions to avoid the commission of the offence.
In this section — “Admiralty List of Radio Signals” means the publication of that name published by the UKHO; “International Code of Signals” means the publication of that name published by the Organization in 1985 and includes any document published by the Organization amending that publication; “radio regulations” means the radio regulations annexed to, or regarded as being annexed to, the International Telecommunication Convention, 1992 and includes all amendments now in force; and “tropical storm” means a hurricane, typhoon, cyclone or other storm of a similar nature and a master of a ship shall be deemed to have encountered a tropical storm if the master of the ship has reason to believe that there is such a storm in the vicinity.
A transmission of messages under this section shall be without charge.