Shipping world – a vessel operates itself?

Here is the notice which was copied exactly by me at one of the piers in Hong Kong.

Notice

A vessel operating a ferry service without a franchise or licence may invalidate its third party insurance. The public are reminded not to use these unauthorized ferry services or they have to take their own risk.

Transport Department

There are three questions I want to raise.

1. A vessel operating a ferry service – Does a vessel sail itself? That means it sails itself ( not necessary to have any crew). If I change it to “An operated vessel as a ferry service”, will it be better?
2. without a franchise or licence may invalidate its third party insurance –I think, “may” is not the correct modular verb to use. If the vessel has no franchise or licence, the third party insurance must be invalidated by the insurance company. So is it better to use “shall” instead?
3. the public – Should it use in singular form?

[Tdol]

A vessel can be used in the way the original has it, it's a kind of synechdoche.

I'd change it to will or shall.
I'd use a plural with public here.

[RonBee]

Originally Posted by Hong Kong Chinese

Here is the notice which was copied exactly by me at one of the piers in Hong Kong.

Notice

A vessel operating a ferry service without a franchise or licence may invalidate its third party insurance. The public are reminded not to use these unauthorized ferry services or they have to take their own risk.

Transport Department

There are three questions I want to raise.

1. A vessel operating a ferry service – Does a vessel sail itself? That means it sails itself ( not necessary to have any crew). If I change it to “An operated vessel as a ferry service”, will it be better?
2. without a franchise or licence may invalidate its third party insurance –I think, “may” is not the correct modular verb to use. If the vessel has no franchise or licence, the third party insurance must be invalidated by the insurance company. So is it better to use “shall” instead?
3. the public – Should it use in singular form?

That could easily be written more clearly and sensibly, thus:

• A ferry service without a franchise or licence may invalidate its third party insurance. Use these unauthorized ferry services at your own risk.

That avoids your first question. :wink:

In any case, it's the ferry service itself that gets the license, not the vessel.

I would say may if they risk losing their insurance, shall if it is a certainty.

In AE we would say the public is. The Brits are more liberal with their use of plurals.

:wink:

[Tdol]

We do tend to chuck the plural around regardless.

Tdol,

Many thanks! I am not familiar with synecdoche. Can you give me some examples.

RonBee

Your paraphrasing the notice makes it clear and concise. Many thanks!

[RonBee]

Synecdoche
USE:
A Synecdoche is a word that refers to a part of something to mean the whole.

EXAMPLE OF SYNECDOCHE:

'All hands on deck' is an example in which 'hands' is used to mean 'people'.
http://www.usingenglish.com/glossary/synecdoche.html

Does that help?

:)

[RonBee]

Synecdoche
USE:
A Synecdoche is a word that refers to a part of something to mean the whole.

EXAMPLE OF SYNECDOCHE:

'All hands on deck' is an example in which 'hands' is used to mean 'people'.
http://www.usingenglish.com/glossary/synecdoche.html

Does that help?

:)