The rules and regulations in this part are prescribed and apply to public nautical school ships, except vessels of the Navy or Coast Guard. It is the intent of the regulations in this part to provide minimum standards for vessels used as nautical school ships in accordance with the various inspection statutes and to obtain their correct and uniform application. This part is not applicable to civilian nautical school ships.

(a) Regulations in this part contain requirements for the design, construction, inspection, lifesaving equipment, firefighting and fire prevention requirements, special operating requirements and number of persons allowed to be carried on nautical school ships. The regulations in this subchapter have preemptive effect over State or local regulations in the same field.

(b) Vessels owned or chartered by the United States Maritime Administration that may be used by or in connection with any nautical school are not normally considered as merchant vessels of the United States and, therefore, are not documented.

(c) Documented nautical school ships of 500 gross tons or more, on international voyages, shall comply with the standards of the International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea, 1974, for cargo vessels.

(d) The regulations in this part have preemptive effect over State or local regulations in the same field.

(a) Vessels inspected and certificated for ocean or unlimited coastwise routes shall be considered suitable for navigation insofar as the provisions of this subchapter are concerned on any inland route, including the Great Lakes.

(a) One of the criteria used for invocation of safety standards is the descriptions of school ships by relative sizes in gross tonnages. When it is determined in accordance with § 70.05-20 of this chapter that a particular school ship has a Bureau of Customs' assigned gross register tonnage which is not indicative of the relative physical size of the vessel, the requirements in this part and the manning shall be that applicable to a vessel of the greater relative size.

(a) The regulations in this part shall be in effect on and after July 1, 1951: Provided, That amendments, revisions, or additions shall become effective 90 days after the date of publication in the Federal Register unless the Commandant shall fix a different time.

(b) Amendments to regulations in this part will not be retroactive in effect unless specifically made so at the time the amendments are issued.

Articles of equipment or materials used in the equipment or the construction of vessels, which conform to the specifications of the Navy or Coast Guard or their approved equivalent, may be accepted.

(a) Purpose. This section collects and displays the control numbers assigned to information collection and recordkeeping requirements in this subchapter by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). The Coast Guard intends that this section comply with the requirements of 44 U.S.C. 3507(f), which requires that agencies display a current control number assigned by the Director of the OMB for each approved agency information collection requirement.

(b) Display.