Merchant Shipping Act 1894

191Provisions for maintenance and relief of distressed seamen.

(1)The following authorities, that is to say, governors of British possessions, British consular officers, and other officers of Her Majesty in foreign countries shall, and, in places where there are no such officers, any two resident British merchants, or if there is only one British merchant so resident that merchant, may in accordance with and on the conditions prescribed by the distressed seamen regulations, provide for the maintenance, until a passage home can be procured, of the following seamen and apprentices (who are in this Act included in the term distressed seamen); namely,—

(a)Seamen and apprentices to the sea service, whether subjects of Her Majesty or not, who by reason of having been discharged or left behind abroad or shipwrecked from any British ship, or any of Her Majesty's ships, are in distress in any place abroad; and

(b)Seamen and apprentices to the sea service, being subjects of Her Majesty, who have been engaged by any person acting either as principal or agent to serve in a ship belonging to the Government or to a subject or citizen of a foreign country, and are in distress in any place abroad.

(2)For the purpose of providing a distressed seaman with a passage home, the authority shall put him on board a British ship bound either to the United Kingdom or to the British possession to which the seaman belongs (as the case requires), which is in want of men to make up its complement; or if there is no such ship, then the authority shall provide the seaman with a passage home as soon as possible in any ship, British or foreign, bound as aforesaid.

(3)The authority shall endorse on the agreement with the crew of the ship, if a British ship, on board of which a distressed seaman is placed, the name of every person so placed on board with any particulars directed by the distressed seamen regulations to be endorsed.

(4)The authority shall be paid in respect of the expenses of the maintenance and conveyance of distressed seamen such sums as the Board of Trade may allow, and those sums shall, on the production of the bills of disbursements, with the proper vouchers, be paid as herein-after provided.