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Chapter Law Content

Chapter 10 Emergency Preparedness
Article 126
Before a passenger ship departs, the master of the ship shall appoint officers to inspect and check the hull and machinery to ensure that they are in normal state, and to have the equipment and accessories thereof readily available. Specific persons shall be designated to take up tasks for emergencies, such as life saving, fire fighting, and rescuing.
Article 126-1
For newly purchased or built passenger ships, the operators shall complete the following training before operation and submit the list of trainees, the training result, and the report on muster drill to the shipping administration authority:
1. Training related to equipment, operating procedures, and responsibilities.
2. Muster drill.
Article 127
Apart from the requirements stipulated in the preceding article, the master shall post up, before the passenger ship departs, the muster list in crew compartments.
Article 128
The muster list mentioned in the preceding article shall include:
1. All crewmembers' assigned duties and the positions where they shall be for different emergencies;
2. Assembling passengers and directing passengers to take actions and the positions where they shall be; and
3. Markings and Indications of different emergency sounds and signals.
Article 129
The assigned duties mentioned in the preceding article shall include:
1. Shutting side scuttles, watertight doors, fire doors, drain ports, and all sewage or other discharge holes on shell plates below the bulkhead deck line of compartment;
2. Stopping fans and ventilation systems;
3. Operating all lifesaving, fire fighting, lights, sound signals, flag signals, and rescue equipment;
4. Preparing and launching lifeboats, life rafts and other lifesaving equipment;
5. Fire patrolling and extinguishing fires;
6. Designating deck crew to assemble passengers and pay attention to:
(1) giving passenger warnings;
(2) inspecting passengers' clothes, footwear, and life vests to ensure that they have donned them suitably;
(3) gathering passengers and directing them to the places where they shall be;
(4) directing passengers to move and keeping order in the passageways and on the stairways;
(5) helping the old, the weak, women and children passengers as much as possible; and
(6) checking that blankets are taken to the survival craft.
7. Appointing specific persons to keep the portable radio equipment;
8. Designating a rescue team and setting up a damage control center;
9. Designating a qualified life-saving crew to take charge of operation of each survival craft; and
10. Any task with regard to emergency that the master deems necessary.
Article 130
Each lifeboat shall be controlled by a designated deck officer who is a qualified lifeboat operator, with a designated deputy officer assigned. The controller shall keep in his hand the name list of lifeboat crewmembers and shall be responsible for familiarizing them with all tasks.
Article 131
Each lifeboat shall be manned with qualified crewmembers based on the carrying capacity of persons as follows:
1. For a capacity of under 41: two members;
2. For a capacity of 41 and under 62: three members;
3. For a capacity of 62 and under 86: four members; or
4. For a capacity of 86 and over: five members.
Article 132
Every motor lifeboat shall be manned by a person able to manage and operate the machinery therein.
Article 133
Every lifeboat that carries radio and search light equipment shall be manned by a person able to operate such equipment.
Article 134
Every life raft shall be manned by a person that is familiar with management and operation of such raft. However, the requirement may be relieved for passenger ships navigating in the coastal or inland water routes if approved by the shipping administration authority.
Article 135
All watertight doors on the bulkheads of compartments of a passenger ship during navigation shall be shut. However, if they are opened due to a work need, they shall be able to be shut any time.
Article 136
A drill of operation of all shutoffs of watertight doors, side scuttles, active live valves and drain ports, soot and garbage chutes shall be made at least once a week. However, one full drill shall be conducted on a ship navigating a voyage of seven days or more before she leaves a port and at least once every seven days thereafter during the voyage.
All power watertight doors and hinged doors located on the main transverse bulkheads shall be operated every day during the voyage.
Article 137
All watertight doors and connecting accessories and indicators thereof, and all active valves that shall be shut off as required for keeping watertightness and those in the connecting pipes required for damage control, shall be inspected periodically at least once every seven days during navigation.
Article 138
The public address system shall be tested at least once every seven days.
Article 139
Steering gear, steam horn, and communicating systems between the navigation bridge, wheel house and machinery space shall be inspected and tested once before departure.
Article 140
Before a passenger ship leaves sheltered waters, the cargo hatches, manholes and air pipes on weather decks shall be inspected and kept closed tightly.
Article 141
The line-throwing device of a passenger ship, if any, shall be test operated once every six months.
Article 142
The emergency lights and the power system thereof of a passenger ship, if any, shall be tested once every seven days.
Article 143
The master of an international passenger ship shall direct his crew through lifesaving and fire drills once every seven days, and once after the ship leaves the last port; except for the ship navigating a shorter international route.
The master of a domestic passenger ship shall direct his crew through a lifesaving and fire drill once every fourteen days.
Article 144
The master of a passenger ship navigating in the international or outer sea route for a voyage that takes fourteen days or more shall command every class of crew members to gather and direct passengers to carry out lifesaving and fire drills within 24 hours after the ship leaves the port of departure.
Article 145
In the drills for lifeboats that are conducted consecutively, each group of lifeboats shall be lifted overboard by turn, and shall be lowered at least once every three months.
Article 146
The time, place and condition of each of the inspections, tests, operations, drills provided in Article 136 through 145, together with any defect found and corrective measures thereof, shall be recorded in the logbook.
Article 147
Every watertight door, side scuttle, side door, fire door and any other opening that shall be shut during navigation pursuant to regulations shall be so shut before the ship leaves a port, and the exact time of opening and closing shall be recorded in the logbook.
Article 148
In a passenger ship there shall be the descriptions of various signals to gather passengers and the responsive actions for passengers to take against emergent cases, which shall be elaborated in proper words, figures, tables and lists and posted up in eye-catching places in every passenger cabin and explained via TV, a broadcasting system, or the crew before sailing.
Article 149
In a passenger ship there shall be a clearly prepared Damage Control Plan illustrating for each deck and hold the boundaries of the watertight compartments, the openings therein with the means of closure and position of any control thereof, and the arrangements for the correction of any list due to flooding. The plan shall be posted permanently in proper places, and the manuals elaborating such information shall be also provided for the crew's use.
Article 150
In a passenger ship there shall be a clearly prepared Fire Control Plan illustrating fire control stations, zones, alarms, the detection system, sprinkler system and extinguishing equipment on decks; the methods accessing different compartments and decks; and the ventilation system, including the positions of the control device and switch board of the main fan and the number of each fan in the compartments. The plan shall be posted where crew may read them.
The plan mentioned in the previous paragraph may be substituted with manuals if approved by the shipping administration authority or ship register institute; such manuals shall be distributed to key persons on board the ship, with one copy kept where it is accessible at all times.
Article 151
The plans or manuals mentioned in the two preceding articles shall be updated from time to time to ensure that they are the latest editions.