A certificate called a Safety Certificate shall be issued, after Inspection and survey, to every passenger ship which complies in an efficient manner with the requirements of Chapters II, III and IV of the Convention.
A certificate called a Safety Radiotelegraphy Certificate shall be issued after inspection to every ship other than a passenger ship which complies in an efficient manner with the requirements of Chapter IV of the present Convention.
A certificate called an Exemption Certificate shall be issued to every ship to which exemption is granted by a Contracting Government under, and in accordance with, the provisions of Chapters II, III and IV of the present Convention.
The inspection and survey of ships, so far as regards the enforcement of the provisions of the present Convention and the annexed Regulations applicable to such ships and the granting of exemptions therefrom, shall be carried out by officers of the country in which the ship is registered, provided that the Government of each country may entrust the inspection and survey of its ships either to surveyors nominated for this purpose or to organisations recognised by it. In every case the Government concerned fully guarantees the completeness and efficiency of the inspection and survey.
A Safety Certificate, Safety Radiotelegraphy Certificate, and Exemption Certificate shall be issued either by the Government of the country in which the ship is registered or by any person or organisation duly authorised by that Government. In every case that Government assumes full responsibility for the certificate.
A Contracting Government may, at the request of the Government of a country in which a ship coming under the present Convention is registered, cause that ship to be surveyed, and, if satisfied that the requirements of the present Convention are complied with, issue a Safety Certificate or Safety Radio-telegraphy Certificate to such ship, under its own responsibility. Any certificate so issued must contain a statement to the effect that it has been issued at the request of the Government of the country in which the ship is registered, and it shall have the same force and receive the same recognition as a certificate issued under Article 49 of the present Convention.
All certificates shall be drawn up in the official language or languages of the country by which they are issued.
The form of the certificates shall be that of the models given in Regulation XLVII. The arrangement of the printed part of the standard certificates shall be exactly reproduced in the certificates issued, or in certified copies thereof, and the particulars inserted by hand shall in the certificates issued, or in certified copies thereof, be inserted in Roman characters and Arabic figures.
The Contracting Governments undertake to communicate one to another a sufficient number of specimens of their certificates for the information of their officers. This exchange shall be made, so far as possible, before the 1st January, 1932.
Certificates shall not be issued for a period of more than twelve months.
If a ship at the time when its certificate expires is not in a port of the country in which it is registered the certificate may be extended by a duly authorised officer of the country to which the ship belongs; but such extension shall be granted only for the purpose of allowing the ship to complete its return voyage to its own country, and then only in cases in which it appears proper and reasonable so to do.
No certificate shall be extended for a longer period than five months, and a ship to which such extension is granted shall not, on returning to its own country, be entitled by virtue of such extension to leave the country again without having obtained a new certificate.
Certificates issued under the authority of a Contracting Government shall be accepted by the other Contracting Governments for all purposes covered by the present Convention. They shall be regarded by the other Contracting Governments as having the same force as the certificates issued by them to their own ships.
Every ship holding a certificate issued under Article 49 or Article 50 is subject, in the ports of the other Contracting Governments to control by officers duly authorised by such Governments in so far as this control is directed towards verifying that there is on board a valid certificate, and if necessary, that the conditions of the vessel's seaworthiness correspond substantially with the particulars of that certificate, that is to say, so that the ship can proceed to sea without danger to the passengers and the crew.
In the event of this control giving rise to intervention of any kind, the officer carrying out the control shall forthwith inform the Consul of the country in which the ship is registered of all the circumstances in which intervention is deemed to be necessary.
The privileges of the present Convention may not be claimed in favour of any ship unless it holds a proper valid certificate.
If in the course of a particular voyage the ship has on board a number of crew and passengers less than the maximum number which the ship is licensed to carry, and is in consequence, in accordance with the provisions of the present Convention, free to carry a smaller number of life-boats and other life-saving appliances than that stated in the certificate, a memorandum may be issued by the officers or other authorised persons referred to in Articles 49 and 52 above.
This memorandum shall state that in the circumstances there is no infringement of the provisions of the present Convention. It shall be annexed to the certificate and shall be substituted for it in so far as the life-saving appliances are concerned. It shall be valid only for the particular voyage in regard to which it is issued.