Catalogue description Records inherited and created by the Ministry of Transport and successors, Marine Divisions

Ministry of Transport and Successors, Marine Divisions, 1946-1963

In peacetime, the functions of the Marine Division of the Ministry of Transport stemmed mainly from the Merchant Shipping Acts and fell broadly under the heads of marine safety, marine crews and navigation.

These functions were the responsibilities of the Marine A Division (later Marine Safety Division) and the Marine B Division (later Marine Crews Division).

The principal duties of Marine A Division related to the survey of ships during construction and service, the measurement of registered tonnage for purposes of dock and other dues, the supervision of crew accommodation, the carriage of dangerous goods, the negotiation of international agreements on safety, and preliminary enquiries into wreck and collision, pending possible reference to a public inquiry by a wreck commissioner.

The work of ship survey was discharged through the Marine Consultative Branch in London which provided direction, co-ordination and technical advice to surveyors in the marine survey offices in the major United Kingdom ports and at suboffices in minor ports. The survey staff at ports were concerned with questions of navigation and seamanship in relation to ships and crews, inspection of marine engines, ship design and construction, ships provisions and certain duties in connection with emigration.

In 1945, responsibility for navigational matters passed from Marine A Division to a new division, later known as the Marine Navigational Aid Division, formed for pilotage, lights and foreshores business. It was responsible for general questions of lights, including several colonial and Red Sea lights directly maintained by the department, and for the administration of the general lighthouse fund, derived from light dues paid by ships using British ports.

The management of lighthouses was vested in the Corporation of Trinity House in England and Wales, the commissioner of northern lighthouses in Scotland and the commissioner of Irish lights in Ireland.

The division had functions concerning pilotage and protection of the public right of navigation and fishing in tidal waters, and for the examination of proposals for works such as piers, slipways and bridges wholly or partly below the highwater mark.

Similarly, the division had responsibilities concerning the rights of shipowners, underwriters and salvors in respect of wrecks and the prerogative of the crown to wrecks washed ashore and unclaimed by their owners.

Radio communications, technical developments in navigation, meteorological information, sea rescue and oil pollution all fell within the ambit of the division, which was also charged with the supervision of HM Coastguard Service on its transfer from the Admiralty in 1945.

The Marine B Division was responsible for standards and conditions of service of merchant officer and seamen. Its duties were of three main types: those relating to the qualifications of seamen; those relating to supervision of the diet, health and accommodation of seamen; and those relating to the conditions of service of seamen which were the concern of the mercantile marine offices at the principal ports.

The Marine Crews Division was also responsible for the General Register and Record Office of Shipping and Seamen.

A Marine C Division was also established comprising two branches: one responsible for the supply of materials for the maintenance and equipment of the mercantile marine through the supply departments and the Materials Committee of the Production Executive, and for shipbuilding grants and loans; the other responsible for liaison with the Admiralty on merchant shipbuilding, repairs and salvage.

In 1965, the Marine Divisions were transferred to the Board of Trade.

Department of Transport, Marine Divisions, 1984-1997

After 1965, responsibility for the Marine Divisions passed successively to the Department of Trade and Industry (1970), and the Department of Trade (1974). In 1984, the Marine Divisions returned to the Department of Transport, Marine Divisions becoming part of the Operative Command of the Department. In 1997, the Department of Transport's responsibilities for Marine Divisions was transferred to the Department of the Environment Transport and the Regions.

The Coastguard element of the marine divisions' responsibilities remained unchanged until 1994 when the Coastguard Agency was established.