Hull Construction Regulations (C.R.C., c. 1431)

4 In addition to the requirements of these Regulations, vessels making international voyages shall comply with the Safety Convention.

5 Notwithstanding anything in these Regulations,

• (a) subject to paragraph (b), the Board may, if satisfied that it can with propriety do so, exempt any ship from full compliance with any of the requirements of these Regulations; and

• (b) in the case of a Safety Convention ship, where these Regulations require that the hull of a ship be constructed in a particular manner or that a particular provision be made, the Board may allow the hull to be constructed in any other manner or allow any other provision to be made if it is satisfied that such other manner of construction or such other provision is at least as effective as that required by these Regulations.

• 6 (1) For the purposes of these Regulations, passenger ships are classified as follows:

  • (a) Class I, consisting of steamships certified to carry more than 12 passengers on international voyages that are not short international voyages;

  • (b) Class II, consisting of steamships certified to carry more than 12 passengers on short international voyages;

  • (c) Class III, consisting of steamships certified to carry passengers on home-trade voyages, Class I, or home-trade voyages Class II, that are not international voyages;

  • (d) Class IV, consisting of steamships certified to carry passengers on home-trade voyages, Class III, that are not international voyages;

  • (e) Class V, consisting of steamships certified to carry passengers on home-trade voyages, Class IV, that are not international voyages;

  • (f) Class VI, consisting of steamships certified to carry passengers on inland voyages, Class I;

  • (g) Class VII, consisting of steamships certified to carry passengers on inland voyages, Class II, or minor waters voyages, Class I; and

  • (h) Class VIII, consisting of steamships certified to carry passengers on minor waters voyages, Class II.

• (2) A reference to a home-trade, inland waters or minor waters voyage by class means that class as defined in the Home-Trade, Inland and Minor Waters Voyages Regulations.

7 The structural strength of every ship to which these Regulations apply shall be sufficient for the service for which the ship is intended.

PART I

Application of Part

8 This Part applies to the following classes of ships if those ships are carrying more than 12 passengers:

• (a) steamships of Class I and Class II; and

• (b) steamships of 150 tons, gross tonnage, or over, that are ships of Class III or Class IV.

Watertight Subdivision

9 Every ship shall be subdivided into compartments by bulkheads that are watertight up to the bulkhead deck, the maximum length of which compartments shall be calculated in accordance with such of the provisions of Schedule I as apply to that ship; every other portion of the internal structure that affects the efficiency of the subdivision of the ship shall be watertight, and shall be of a design that will maintain the integrity of the subdivision.

Peak, Machinery Space and Shaft Tunnel Bulkheads

• 10 (1) Subject to subsection (1.1), every ship shall be equipped with a collision bulkhead

  • (a) that is watertight up to the bulkhead deck, and

  • (b) that is fitted at a distance abaft the ship’s forward perpendicular of not less than 5%, and not more than 3.05 m + 5%, of the length of the ship.

• (1.1) In the case of a ship that has a forward superstructure, the collision bulkhead shall be extended weathertight to the deck next above the bulkhead deck and this extension shall

  • (a) be fitted directly over the collision bulkhead below, unless

    • (i) the collision bulkhead is fitted at a distance from the ship’s forward perpendicular of 5% or more of the length of the ship, and

    • (ii) the part of the bulkhead deck which forms the step is made weathertight, and

  • (b) have a plating and stiffeners of such strength and construction as to be capable of supporting the pressure of a head of water up to the margin line, as if the extension formed part of a bulkhead immediately below the bulkhead deck.

• (2) Every ship shall be provided with a watertight afterpeak bulkhead and with watertight bulkheads dividing the space appropriated to the main and auxiliary propelling machinery, boilers, and the permanent coal bunkers, if any, from other spaces; such bulkheads shall be watertight up to the bulkhead deck; provided that the afterpeak bulkhead may be stopped below the bulkhead deck if the safety of the ship is not thereby impaired.

• (3) The stern gland shall be situated in a watertight shaft tunnel or other watertight space separate from the stern tube compartment and of such a volume that if the tunnel or space is flooded the margin line will not be submerged; the stern tube shall be enclosed in a watertight compartment, the volume of which shall be the smallest compatible with the proper design of the ship.

Double Bottoms

• 11 (1) Every ship of 50 m in length or more shall be fitted with a watertight double bottom that

  • (a) in ships of no less than 50 m but less than 61 m in length, extends at least from the forward end of the machinery space to the collision bulkhead, or as near to that bulkhead as is practicable;

  • (b) in ships of no less than 61 m but less than 76 m in length, extends at least from the forward end of the machinery space to the collision bulkhead and from the aft end of the machinery space to the afterpeak bulkhead, or as near to those bulkheads as is practicable; and

  • (c) in ships of 76 m or more in length, extends at least from the collision bulkhead to the afterpeak bulkhead, or as near to those bulkheads as is practicable.

• (1.1) Ships of no less than 24 m but less than 50 m in length that carry berthed passengers below the bulkhead deck shall be fitted with a watertight double bottom for the full length of compartments in which passenger spaces are located.

• (2) When a double bottom is required by this section to be fitted in a ship, the inner bottom shall be continued out to the ship’s sides in such a manner as to protect the bottom to the turn of the bilge; the inner bottom shall be deemed to be adequate for this purpose if the line of intersection of the outer edge of the margin plate with the bilge plating is not lower at any point than a horizontal plane passing through the point of intersection with the frame line amidships of a transverse diagonal line inclined at 25 degrees to the base line and cutting it at a point one half of the ship’s moulded breadth from the middle line.

• (3) Wells constructed in the double bottom for the purpose of drainage shall not be larger or extend downwards more than is necessary for such purpose, and shall not be less than 460 mm from the outer bottom or from the inner edge of the margin plate, provided that a well extending to the outer bottom may be constructed at the after end of a shaft tunnel.

• (4) Wells for purposes other than drainage shall not be constructed in the double bottom; the Board may exempt any ship from the requirements of this subsection in respect of any well it is satisfied will not diminish the protection given by the double bottom.

• (5) Nothing in this section shall require a double bottom to be fitted in way of watertight compartments used exclusively for the carriage of liquids, if the safety of the ship will not be impaired in the event of bottom or side damage by reason of the absence of a double bottom in that position.

• (6) The Board may exempt any ship, other than a ship of Class I, from the requirements of a double bottom in any portion of the ship that is subdivided by application of a factor of subdivision not exceeding 0.5 if it is satisfied that the fitting of a double bottom in that portion of the ship would not be compatible with the design and proper working of the ship.

Stability in Damaged Condition

• 12 (1) Every ship shall be so constructed as to provide sufficient intact stability in all service conditions to enable the ship to withstand the final flooding of any one of the main compartments into which the ship is subdivided in accordance with the provisions of section 9; if two of the main compartments, being adjacent to each other, are separated by a bulkhead that is stepped, the intact stability shall be adequate to withstand the final flooding of those compartments; if the ship’s factor of subdivision is 0.5 or less, the intact stability shall be adequate to withstand the final flooding of any two of the main compartments that are adjacent to each other.

• (2) For the purposes of this section, the sufficiency of the intact stability of every such ship shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of Schedule II.

• (3) Every ship shall be so constructed as to keep unsymmetrical flooding when the ship is in a damaged condition at the minimum consistent with efficient arrangements; if cross-flooding fittings are provided in any such ship, the fittings and the maximum heel of the ship before equalization shall be such as will not endanger the safety of the ship.

• (4) Where the margin line may become submerged during the flooding assumed for the purposes of the calculation referred to in Schedule II, the construction of the ship shall be such as will enable the master of the ship to ensure

  • (a) that the maximum angle of heel during any stage of such flooding will not be such as will endanger the safety of the ship; and

  • (b) that the margin line will not be submerged in the final stage of flooding.

• (5) In every ship the owner shall provide a document for the use of the master of the ship containing information as to the use of any cross-flooding fittings provided in the ship.

• (6) In every ship the owner shall provide a document for the use of the master of the ship containing

  • (a) information necessary for the maintenance of sufficient intact stability under service conditions to enable the ship to withstand damage to the extent referred to in Schedule II; and

  • (b) information as to the conditions of stability on which the calculations of heel have been based, together with the information that excessive heeling may result if the ship sustains damage when in a less favourable condition.

Construction of Watertight Bulkheads

• 13 (1) Every part of a ship required to be watertight shall be of such strength and construction as to be capable of supporting the greater of whichever of the following pressures that the part might have to sustain in the event of damage to the ship:

  • (a) the pressure of a head of water up to the margin line; or

  • (b) the pressure of the maximum head of water.

• (2) In every ship all tanks, including double bottoms, peak tanks, settling tanks and bunkers, forming part of the structure of the ship and used for the storage of oil fuel or other liquids, shall be of a design and construction adequate for that purpose.

Openings in Watertight Bulkheads

• 14 (1) In every ship the number of openings in bulkheads and other structures required to be watertight shall be the minimum compatible with the design and proper working of the ship.

• (2) So far as practicable, trunks installed in connection with ventilation, forced draught or refrigeration systems in any ship shall not pierce such bulkheads or structures.

• (3) Every tunnel above the double bottom, if any, in a ship, whether for access from the crew space to the machinery space, for piping or for any other purpose, which passes through a bulkhead, shall be watertight; the means of access to at least one end of such tunnel, if it may be used as a passage at sea, shall be through a trunkway extending watertight to a height sufficient to permit access above the margin line; the means of access to the other end of the tunnel shall be through a watertight door; no tunnel shall extend through the first subdivision bulkhead abaft the collision bulkhead.

• (4) Not more than one doorway, other than a bunker or tunnel doorway, shall pierce a watertight bulkhead in the machinery space in any ship; if any such bulkhead is pierced by a doorway the doorway shall be placed so as to have the sill as high as possible in the ship.

• (5) Doorways, manholes and access openings shall not be fitted in the collision bulkhead below the margin line of any ship or in any other bulkhead that is required to be watertight and divides a cargo space from another cargo space or from a permanent or reserve bunker; the Board may permit any such ship to be fitted with doorways in bulkheads dividing two between deck cargo spaces if it is satisfied that

  • (a) the doorways are necessary for the proper working of the ship;

  • (b) the number of such doorways is the minimum compatible with the design and proper working of the ship, and the doorways are fitted at the highest practicable level; and

  • (c) the outboard vertical edges of such doorways are situated at a distance from the ship’s shell plating which is not less than one fifth of the breadth of the ship, such distance being measured at right angles to the centre line of the ship at the level of the deepest subdivision load water line.

• (6) In every ship

  • (a) bulkheads outside the machinery space that are required to be watertight shall not be pierced by openings that are capable of being closed only by portable bolted plates; and

  • (b) where portable bolted plates are permitted in machinery space bulkheads, the master and persons in charge of the navigation and engine room watches shall ensure that such plates are in place before the ship leaves port and are not removed during navigation except in the case of urgent necessity, and the master shall ensure that notices to this effect are posted in the Chart Room and at the openings on each side of the bulkhead.

• (7) In every ship

  • (a) valves and cocks not forming part of a pipe system shall not be fitted in any bulkhead required to be watertight;

  • (b) where a watertight bulkhead is pierced by pipes, scuppers, electric cables or other similar fittings, provision shall be made that will ensure that the watertightness of the bulkhead is not thereby impaired; and

  • (c) the collision bulkhead shall not be pierced below the margin line by more than one pipe, provided that if the forepeak is divided to hold two different kinds of liquids the collision bulkhead may be pierced below the margin line by not more than two pipes; any pipe which pierces the collision bulkhead shall be fitted with a screwdown valve capable of being operated from above the bulkhead deck, the valve chest being secured to the forward side of the collision bulkhead.