Section 26: Persons employed on ships

26. Persons employed on ships (1) Subject to subsection (2), this Act shall apply to masters, seamen and apprentices to the sea service, where they are workmen and are members of the crew of a ship registered in Mauritius, or a Commonwealth ship or vessel of which the owner, or where there is more than one owner, the managing owner or manager resides or has his principal place of business in Mauritius. [Issue 4] W9 – 16 Revised Laws of Mauritius (2) (a) The notice of accident and the claim for compensation may, except where the person injured is the master, be given to the master of the ship as if he were the employer, but where the accident happened and the incapacity commenced on board the ship, it shall not be necessary to give any notice of the accident. (b) In the case of the death of the master, seaman or apprentice, the application for compensation shall be made within 6 months after news of the death has been received by the claimant. (c) Where an injured master, seaman or apprentice is discharged or left behind outside Mauritius, depositions about the circumstances and nature of the injury may be taken by a Judge or Magistrate in a Commonwealth country, and by any Mauritius consular officer in a foreign country, and where so taken shall be transmitted by the person by whom they are taken to the President, and the depositions or certified copies of them shall in any proceedings for enforcing the claim be admissible in evidence. (d) In case of the death of a master, seaman or apprentice, who leaves no dependants, no compensation shall be payable, if the owner of the ship is liable to pay the expenses of burial. (e) The weekly payment shall not be payable in respect of the period during which the owner of the ship is, under any enactment relating to merchant shipping, liable to defray the expenses of maintenance of the injured master, seaman or apprentice. (f) Any sum payable by way of compensation by the owner of a ship under this Act shall be paid in full, but any limitation on the owner’s liability shall apply to the amount recoverable by way of indemnity under section 23 of this Act as if the indemnity were damages for loss of life or personal injury. (g) — (3) This Act shall also apply to a person who is not a master, seaman or apprentice to the sea service, employed on board any ship specified in this section where he is employed for the purpose of the ship or of any passengers or cargo or mails carried by the ship, and if he is otherwise a workman. (4) In this Act— “manager”, in relation to a ship, means the ship’s husband or other person to whom the management of the ship is entrusted by or on behalf of the owner; “seaman”, “ship” and “vessel” have the same meaning as in the Merchant Shipping Act. [S. 26 amended by Act 48 of 1991.]