ABSTRACT
The analysis of a ship mortgage is no longer appropriate to a registered statutory mortgage under the 1995 Act which allows the registration of second and subsequent mortgages and gives them the same legal consequences as a first registered mortgage. A registered ship mortgage is better regarded a sui generis form of statutory security perfected by registration more in the nature of a statutory charge. It is important to note that questions of ownership and the creation of rights less than ownership in a chattel are to be determined by the lex situs. Regulations 7 and 8 of the Regulations set out the categories of persons who are qualified to be owners of British ships, following the divisions of British nationality introduced by the British Nationality Act 1981. Moreover the place of registration will often have no connection whatever with the ownership, financing, management and insurance of the vessel.
