Merchant Shipping (Registration) (Ships’ Names) Regulations
(Enacting provision omitted—E.R. 5 of 2024)
[3 December 1990]
(Format changes—E.R. 5 of 2024)
These regulations may be cited as the Merchant Shipping (Registration) (Ships’ Names) Regulations.
The proposed name of a ship shall not be marked on the ship or entered in the register before the name is approved by the Registrar.
The Registrar shall approve the proposed name of a ship except where the ship cannot be registered by that name by virtue of subregulation (3).
The Registrar shall refuse to register a ship by its proposed name if the name—
is already the name of a registered ship or is reserved under regulation 4, or is in the opinion of the Registrar so similar as to be likely to deceive; or
is in the opinion of the Registrar undesirable for the purposes of registration in Hong Kong.
Where the Registrar does not approve the proposed name of a ship, he shall in writing notify the applicant of that fact forthwith.
In this regulation—
applicant (申請人) means an applicant for registration of a ship; proposed name (擬用名稱), in relation to a ship, means the name proposed by the applicant in the application for registration as the name by which the ship is to be registered; registration (註冊) includes provisional registration.The Registrar shall not register a ship by its name in Chinese alone unless the phonetically corresponding name in the English alphabet is also registered.
An application to reserve a name for a ship which is intended to be registered in Hong Kong shall be made in the specified form by a qualified person who is the owner of the ship, or by a person authorized by such owner for the purpose.
Regulation 2 shall apply to an application under subregulation (1) as if the name to be reserved were the proposed name of the ship and the applicant were the applicant for registration of the ship.
Where the Registrar approves the name for a ship pursuant to subregulation (2), the name shall be reserved to the owner for a period of 3 years from the date of such approval and the Registrar shall notify the applicant accordingly.