Section 10: Shipping casualties

10. Shipping casualties (1) Where a shipping casualty occurs, such as— (a) the loss or presumed loss, stranding, grounding, abandonment of, or damage to, a ship; (b) a loss of life or serious injury to any person, caused by fire on board, or by any accident to a ship or ship’s boat, or by any accident occurring on board a ship or ship’s boat; or (c) any damage caused by a ship, and, at the time it occurs, the ship was registered under this Act or under the law of another country, the Director or a surveyor designated by him may hold a preliminary inquiry into the casualty and may, for that purpose, exercise any power conferred by section 8 (1) and such additional power as the Minister may confer on them for the particular inquiry. (2) Whether or not a preliminary inquiry into a casualty has been held under subsection (1), the Minister may cause a formal investigation to be held by a Court of Investigation appointed by the Minister for that purpose which shall submit to the Minister a report of its findings and recommendations, if any, upon completion of the investigation. (3) Where a death occurs on board a Mauritius ship or on board any foreign ship, and that ship calls at a Port, the Superintendent of Shipping shall, on arrival of the ship in Mauritius— (a) inquire into the cause of the death; and (b) make, in the official log book, a report of the result of the inquiry. (4) Where, in the course of an inquiry under subsection (3), it appears to the Superintendent of Shipping that the death has been caused by violence or in suspicious circumstances, he shall report the matter— (a) to the Commissioner of Police; and (b) where the ship is a foreign ship, to the proper officer of the country in which the ship is registered. M62 – 11 [Issue 2] Merchant Shipping Act