Chapter 102

Section 1. Whoever, not being a pilot or public officer, shall board or attempt to board a vessel arriving in the harbor of Boston, Salem, Fall River, New Bedford and Fairhaven or Gloucester, before such vessel has been made fast to the wharf, without the previous permission of t…

Section 10. Every person on board such vessel, who does not keep within the bounds of the bulkhead and fore chains during the time of taking the marks or while a weigher is employed in weighing or marking, unless in case of absolute necessity, shall forfeit not more than twenty d…

Section 11. Such vessels shall have their marks examined annually in June by a sworn weigher; and if the marks agree with the former certificates, he shall certify the same accordingly; otherwise he shall keep such certificates, which shall be admitted in evidence in any prosecut…

Section 12. Each weigher shall receive from the owner or master of a vessel weighed and marked twenty cents for every ton of such vessel, and four dollars for furnishing marks, nails and other necessary articles, fastening the same and giving the certificate.

Section 13. Every owner or master of any such vessel who neglects to have the same weighed, marked and examined according to this chapter, or removes any marks or alters his certificate, and every weigher who places any mark contrary to this chapter, or gives a false certificate,…

Section 14. Towns may establish ordinances or by-laws regulating the marking and weighing of lighters and other vessels employed in transporting stones, gravel, sand or other ballast; the inspection and weighing of such ballast; and the appointment and compensation of weighers, m…

Section 17. Whoever wilfully and without lawful authority or license therefor, deposits in a harbor or other navigable tide waters stones, gravel, mud, ballast, cinders, ashes, dirt or any other substance, tending to injure the navigation or to shoal the depth thereof, or throws …

Section 18. No warp or line shall be passed across a channel or dock so as to obstruct vessels passing along the same.

Section 19. The mayor of a city, except Boston, or the selectmen of a town where a harbor is situated, unless otherwise specially provided, may, and for all harbors that have been improved by the expenditure of money by the commonwealth shall, appoint a harbor master and assistan…

Section 19A. (a) A person who receives an appointment as a harbormaster or as an assistant harbormaster on a full-time or permanent part-time basis in a city or town where a harbor is located shall satisfactorily complete an initial prescribed course of study for harbormasters wh…

Section 1A. Except as provided in section one, whoever, not being a pilot or public officer, boards a boat or vessel without the permission of the owner or person in charge thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than fifty dollars. This section shall not apply to a perso…

Section 2. A seaman or mariner who has shipped or entered into a contract for a voyage from a port in this commonwealth shall not be arrested on mesne process on account of a debt to a landlord or boarding house keeper; nor shall a landlord or boarding house keeper detain or have…

Section 20. Such assistants shall be subject to the direction and control of the harbor master of their town, and shall have all the powers given to, and be subject to all the duties required of, harbor masters by law.

Section 21. The master of a vessel within a harbor for which a harbor master is appointed shall anchor his vessel according to the regulations of the harbor master, and shall move to such place as he directs. The master of a towboat having a vessel in tow and a pilot having a ves…

Section 22. The master of a vessel, before unloading lumber in the stream or channel of a harbor having a harbor master, shall obtain from him a permit, designating where such lumber may be rafted.

Section 23. A vessel lying in a harbor or at a wharf or pier in a harbor shall, if so directed by the harbor master, cockbill the lower yards, brace the topsail yards fore and aft and rig in the jib-boom.

Section 24. A harbor master may, at the expense of the master or owners thereof, cause the removal of any vessel which lies in his harbor and is not moved when directed by him, and upon the neglect or refusal of such master or owners on demand to pay such expense, he may recover …

Section 25. If the master or other person in charge of a vessel occupying a berth at a public wharf or pier fails, after notice from the wharfinger thereof or his agent, to remove his vessel from such berth within such time as the harbor master adjudges reasonable, or if the mast…

Section 26. A harbor master may regulate and station all vessels in the streams or channels of his harbor, and may remove such as he determines are not fairly and actually employed in receiving or discharging their cargoes, to make room for such others as require to be more immed…

Section 27. Harbor masters shall report to the department of environmental management any violation of section seventeen or of any law relating to tide water in their respective harbors, and of all shipwrecks in the tide waters of their respective harbors and of any obstructions …

Section 28. Whoever violates any of the provisions of the ten preceding sections or refuses or neglects to obey the lawful orders of a harbor master, or resists him in the execution of his duties, shall be punished by a fine of not more than fifty dollars, and shall be liable in …

Section 3. If any offence mentioned in sections one and two is committed in Boston or Boston harbor, the penalty may be recovered by complaint in the municipal court of the city of Boston; if in Salem or Salem harbor, in the first district court of Essex; if in Fall River or Fall…

Section 4. For the purposes of sections one, two and three, the outer limits of Boston harbor shall be a line drawn from Harding's Rock to the Outer Graves and thence to Nahant Head, and said harbor shall include the shores of Chelsea; the outer limits of Salem harbor shall be th…

Section 6. The mayor of a city and the selectmen of a town in which lighters or other vessels are employed in transporting stones, gravel or sand shall annually, in March or April, appoint one or more sworn weighers of vessels.

Section 7. Every lighter or other vessel employed in transporting stone sold by weight or gravel or sand shall be marked on the stem and stern post, nearly level with the bend of the vessel, with stationary marks or bar iron, not less than six inches long and two and a half inche…

Section 8. Each weigher, upon request, shall furnish the requisite marks and nails, and shall cause lighters and other vessels to be weighed and marked in conformity with the preceding section. The weigher shall keep in a book provided for the purpose a correct account of the dis…

Section 9. In taking the tonnage of every such vessel, a deduction may be made of one ton for every inch that the light water marks are under water after such vessel has discharged its cargo.