Britain: An official handbook > 1966

36°
BRITAIN: AN OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
Seafarers'
Organisations
The National
Maritime Board
Conferences
T'he Baltic
Exchange
RELATIONS
WITH THE
GOVERNMENT
the National Sea Training Schools, administered under the National Sea
Training Trust, which train ratings for the deck and catering departments
and as firemen.
Shipmasters are represented by the Mercantile Marine Service Association;
navigating officers, engineer officers, apprentices, cadets, pursers and ships’
surgeons by the Merchant Navy and Airline Officers' Association; and radio
officers by the Radio Officers' Union. Some uncertificated engineer officers are
represented by the Amalgamated Engineering Union. The interests of the deck,
engine-room and catering ratings are represented by the National Union of
Seamen.
The National Maritime Board is composed of equal numbers of representa¬
tives of the shipowners and seafarers and is responsible for all negotiations
of wages and conditions of service in the Merchant Navy, although, except
by special arrangement, National Maritime Board agreements do not apply
to vessels of under 200 gross tons, or to certain other ships, including tugs
and salvage vessels. Detailed working of the board is carried on by a number
of ‘panels’ representing the various interests of those forming the seafarers’
part of the board.
British shipping companies operating liners have associated with each other
and with the companies of other countries operating on the same routes in
a series of ‘conferences’ designed to secure standardisation and stability of
rates, and to maintain frequency and regularity of services. The essential
principle of a conference is the establishment of a common tariff of freight
rates or passenger fares from each port of departure. Each conference meets
from time to time to review and revise existing rates, or to compile new ones.
Some of the conferences are connected by rate agreements, or have joined
together to form wider groupings. There are over 60 conferences dealing
with trade to and from the United Kingdom.
The Baltic Mercantile and Shipping Exchange, which originated in one of
London’s seventeenth-century coffee houses, is the world’s largest market
for the chartering of ships of all nationalities. Shipbrokers and merchants’
representatives meet here to arrange the chartering of dry-cargo tramp ships
for the carriage of goods to and from all parts of the world.
The Board of Trade is now the government department responsible for
most matters connected with merchant shipping; it took over this responsibility
from the Ministry of Transport in February 1965. Under the Merchant
Shipping Act of 1894 and subsequent legislation, it administers many
regulations for marine safety and welfare, for instance: certifying the load-
line (or Plimsoll line) that ensures that a ship is not overloaded; ensuring that
standards of safety are observed in ship construction; ensuring the provision
of adequate life-saving, fire-fighting and radio equipment; and dealing with
the discipline, professional standards, health and accommodation of seamen.
Most of the work which these responsibilities entail is carried out by the
officers of the Marine Survey and Mercantile Marine at the ports. There is
also a Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen in whose office at Cardiff
a complete record of all British ships and seamen is kept. The Board of Trade
is represented on the Merchant Navy Welfare Board and on the Merchant
Navy Training Board (see p. 362).
The Board of Trade fosters the development and use of modern naviga¬
tional aids. It arranges for the provision of space in merchant ships to meet
the sea transport needs of the armed forces and looks after ships that it owns