CHAPTER 146.
SHIPWRECKED PASSENGERS.
An Ordinance to Consolidate and amend the Law relating to
Shipwrecked Passengers.
[22ND SEPTEMBER, 1888.]
1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Shipwrecked
Passengers Ordinance.
2. In this Ordinance the term " passenger ship " shall include
every description of vessel used in navigation, "passenger"
shall include any person carried in any passenger ship other
than the master and crew, and the owner, his family, and
servants.
3. If any passengers, or cabin passengers, of any passenger
ship shall be taken off from any such passenger ship, or shall
be picked up at sea from any boat, raft, or otherwise, it shall be
lawful, if the port or place to which they shall be conveyed shall
be within the Colony, for the Governor, or for any person
authorised by him for the purpose, to defray all, or any part of,
the expenses there by incurred.
4. If any passenger, or cabin passenger, of any passenger ship
shall, without any neglect or default of his own, find himself
within any part of the Colony other than that for which the
ship was originally bound, or at _which he or the Emigration
Shipwrecked Passengers [Cap. 146
Commissioners, or any public officer, or other person on his
behalf, may have contracted that he should land, it shall be
lawful for the Governor, or for any person authorised by him
for the purpose, as the case may be, to forward such passenger
to his intended destination, unless the master of such ship shall,
within forty-eight hours of the arrival of such passenger, give
to the Governor a written undertaking to forward, or carry on,
within six weeks thereafter, such passenger, or cabin passenger,
to his original destination, and unless such master shall accordingly forward or carry him on within that period.
5. (1) All expenses incurred under the two last preceding ~xpe~s~s ~o
sections, or either of them, by, or by the authority of, the ~the ~~w~~
Governor, or other person as therein respectively mentioned,
including the cost of maintaining the passengers until forwarded
to their destination, and of all necessary bedding, provisions,
and stores, shall become a debt to Her Majesty and Her
successors from the owner, charterer, and master of such ship,
and shall be recoverable from them, or from any one or more of
them, at the suit and for the use of Her Majesty, in like manner
· as in the case of other Crown debts, and a certificate in the form
in the schedule hereto annexed, or as near thereto as the circumstances of the case will admit, purporting to be under the hand
of the Governor, stating the total amount of such expenses,
shall, in any suit or other proceeding for the recovery of such
debt, be received in evidence without proof of the handwriting
or of the official character of the Governor, and shall be deemed
sufficient evidence of the amount of such expenses, and that the
same were duly incurred, nor shall it be necessary to adduce,
on behalf of Her Majesty, any other evidence in support of
the claim, but judgment shall pass for the Crown, with costs
of suit, unless the defendant shall specially plead and duly prove
that such certificate is false or fraudulent, or shall specially
plead and prove any facts showing that such expenses were not
duly incurred under the provisions of this Ordinance.
f (2) hln no case shhall any larger su
1m be ~ecovhered on
1 account ~:e:~f~r:d
o sue expenses t an a sum equa to twice t e tota amount to retum of
of passage money received, or due to, and recoverable by, or passage
on account of, the owner, charterer, or master of such passenger money.
ship, or any of them for, or in respect of, the whole number of
passengers and cabin passengers who may have embarked in
such ship, which total amount of passage money shall be proved
by the defendant if he will have the advantage of this limitation
of the debt, but if any such passengers are forwarded or conveyed to their intended destination under the provisions of the
Summary
proceedings
by
Magistrate.
Sec. 5.
Cap. 146] Shipwrecked Passengers
last preceding section, they shall not be entitled to the return
of their passage money, or to any compensation for loss of
passage.
6. Any question which may arise under the provisions of this
Ordinance shall be heard and determined in a summary way
by a Magistrate in such manner as prosecutions are conducted
in the Police Court.
I hereby certify that, acting in conformity with the provisions of the
Shipwrecked Passengers Ordinance, I have defrayed the expenses incurred
in rescuing, maintaining, supplying with necessary bedding, provisions, and
stores (a) and in forwarding to their destination .......................................... passengers
[including .................................... cabin passengers (b)] who were proceeding from
.................................... to .................................. ..in the ship .................................... which was wrecked
at sea, etc. (c)
And I further certify that the total amount of such expenses is ............................. .
pounds, and that such expenses were duly incurred by me under the said
Ordinance.
Given under my hand this .................................... day of.................................... l9 ............ .
................................................... Governor.
(a) If more passengers tvere rescued than forwarded, or if bedding, etc., was not supplied,
alter the certificate to suit the facts of the case.
(b) Omit words in brackets when necessary.
(c) State generally the nature of the disaster and where it occurred. But if the passengers
were only left behind without any default of their own, state the fact accordingly.
Check the current official version before relying on this text. MiLAWYER shares legal information, not legal advice.