Section 19 in The Merchant Shipping (Crew Accommodation) Rules, 1960
19. Mess Rooms.
- [(1) In every ship to which these rules apply, unless the circumstances are such as to require no member of crew to mess on board, mess rooms shall be provided for the crew.In every ship of 100 tons or over, the floor area of mess rooms provided for officers and crew shall be as follows :-(a)for Officers : one square metre per person(b)for crew : 0.7 square metre per person](2)No mess room shall be combined with a sleeping room. The Central Government may exempt any ship of under 300 tons from the provisions of this sub-rule if it is satisfied that compliance therewith is unreasonable or impracticable in the circumstances.(3)In every ship of 500 tons or over, the mess rooms provided for ratings shall be separate from those provided for the Master of the ship of for offices.(4)In every ship of 1,000 tons or over, a single mess room shall be provided for all officers in the ship. Provided that the officer may be accommodate ed in separate mess room if their sleeping room are in widely separate portions of the ship.(5)In every ship of 1,000 tons or over, each of the following classes of ratings shall be provided with mess rooms separate from those provided for the other classes :-(a)petty officers of the deck department;(b)petty officers of the engine room department;(c)other ratings of the deck department:;(d)other ratings of the engine room department.Subject to the provision of sub-rule (1) the Central Government may permit the provision in any ship of complained mess rooms as follows :-(i)for petty officers of the deck and engine room departments;(ii)for petty officers and other ratings of the same departments;(iii)for all ratings (other than petty officers) of the deck and engine room department.Subject as aforesaid, the Central Government may further permit the provision in any ship of a single mess room for all petty officers and other ratings of all departments, if it is satisfied that such an arrangement is preferred either by the owner of the ship or by an organization which appears to the Central Government to be most representative of owners of Indian ships, and by an organization which appears to it to be most representative of the seamen.(6)In every ship of 3,000 tons or over with a catering department of more than 7 persons mess room shall be provided for ratings of the catering department which shall be separate from those provided for ratings of other department, unless the Central Government permits a combined mess room fro petty officers and other ratings of all departments in accordance with the provisions of sub-rule (5).If in any other ship a separate mess room is not provided for ratings of the catering department messing accommodation shall be provided for them in mess rooms provided for other ratings.(7)Apprentices shall be provide with messing accommodation in the offices mess room.(8)The Central Government may exempt any passenger ship from the requirements of this rule to the extent that it is satisfied that compliance therewith is unreasonable or impracticable in the circumstances.
