The official log book entries and records in freeboard draft and allowances
Part IX Articles 314 and 320 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 state as follows:
314:(1) No owner or master of an Indian ship which has been marked in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this Part, shall without reasonable cause, fail to keep the ship so marked.(2) No person shall conceal, remove, alter, deface or obliterate, or suffer any person under his control to conceal, remove, alter, deface or obliterate any mark placed on any such ship in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this Part except with the authority of a person entitled under the load line rules to authorise the alteration of the mark or except for the purpose of escaping capture by an enemy or by a foreign ship of war in the exercise of some belligerent right.
320:(1) Before an agreement with the crew of any ship in respect of which a load line certificate is in force, is signed by any member of the crew, the master of the ship shall insert in the agreement the particulars as to the position of the deck line and load lines specified in the certificate.(2) In the case of a ship required by this Act to engage its crew before a shipping master, the shipping master shall not proceed with the engagement of the crew until -(a) There is produced to him a load line certificate for the time being in force in respect of the ship; and(b) He is satisfied that the particulars required by this section have been inserted in the agreement with the crew.