Section 56, The Merchant Shipping Act, 2003

(1) Where the property in a registered ship or a share therein is transmitted to a person qualified to own a Sierra Leonean ship on the death or insolvency of a registered owner, or by any lawful means other than transfer under this Act— a) that person shall authenticate the transmission by making or signing a declaration (in this Part referred to as a “declaration of transmission”), identifying the ship and containing several statements required to be contained in a declaration of transfer and also a statement of the manner in which and the person to whom the property has been transmitted; b) where the transmission is consequent on insolvency, the declaration of transmission shall be accompanied by such evidence as is for the time being admissible in a court of competent jurisdiction as proof of title of the persons claiming under insolvency; and c) where the transmission is consequent on death, the declaration of transmission shall be accompanied by the instrument of representation or an official extract therefrom. (2) The Registrar, on receipt of the declaration of transmission so accompanied shall enter in the register the name of the person entitled under the transmission as owner of the ship or of the share of the property which has been transmitted, and where there is more than one such person, he shall enter the names of those persons, however numerous, and shall for the purposes of this Part with respect to the number of persons entitled to be registered as owners be considered as one person. Transfer of ship or sale by order of Court 57. (1) Where the High Court orders a sale of a ship or any share therein, whether under this Part or otherwise, the order of the Court shall contain a declaration vesting in some person named by the Court, the right to transfer that ship or share. (2) The person named by the court under subsection (1) is entitled to transfer the ship or share in the same manner and to the same extent as if he were the registered owner. (3) The Registrar shall obey the requisition of the person named by the Court under subsection (1) in respect of such transfer to the same extent as if such person were the registered owner. (4) A proper officer, on recording such notice shall inform the Registrar by whom the certificate was granted whether any previous exercise of the power to which the certificate refers has taken place. Power of Court to prohibit transfer 58. The High Court may, if thinks fit so to do, without prejudice to the exercise of any other power of the Court, on application of any interested person, make an order prohibiting for the time specified in the order, any dealing with a ship or a share therein and the Court may make the order on any terms or conditions it thinks fit, or may refuse to make the order or may discharge the order when made, with or without costs and generally may not in the case as the justice of the case requires and every Registrar without being made a party to the proceedings shall on being served with an order or official copy thereof obey the order. P ART V – MORTGAGES Mortgage of ships or shares. 59. (1) A registered ship or a share in it may be used as security for the repayment of a loan or the discharge of any other obligation. (2) The instrument creating any such security referred to as a “mortgage” shall be in a form prescribed by (3) Where a mortgage executed in accordance with subsection (2) is produced to the Registrar at the ship’s port of registry he shall record it in the register. (4) Mortgages shall be registered in the order in which they are produced to the Registrar for the purposes of registration and the Registrar shall notify each mortgagee that the mortgages has been registered by him stating the day and hour of that registration. (5) The transfer of a mortgage or its transmission shall not affect the order of priority of the mortgage. Mortgage of provisionally registered ships.