S.L. 234.51 Art. 83Return of distressed seamen.

(1) A seafarer, distressed or otherwise, shall be sent to a proper return port by any reasonable route.

(2) Provision may be made for the return of a seafarer, if he is fit to work, by providing him with suitable employment on board a ship, proceeding to a proper return port, which is in want of personnel to make up its complement, or, if that is not practicable, by providing him with a passage by aircraft, ship, train or other mode of transport, or, with the money for his passage and, as to any part of the route which is by land, by paying the expenses of his journey and of his maintenance during the journey, or providing him with the means to pay those expenses.

(3) Where the master of a ship is required by these rules to provide for the return of a discharged seafarer to a proper return port, the master may, instead of providing the passage or the expenses of his journey, or of providing him with the means to pay his passage or those expenses, deposit with the officer whose sanction or certificate is required under these rules such sum as that officer considers sufficient to pay the expenses of the return of the seafarer to a proper return port.

(4) Whilst a distressed seafarer is in transit to a proper return port, the proper authority at any place at which that seafarer may be, may pay on behalf of the authority originally making arrangements for the distressed seafarer’s return to a proper return port, any expenses on account of that seafarer which the authority originally acting in respect of such seafarer could pay.

(5) Where a seafarer is repatriated as a member of a crew, he shall be entitled to the appropriate remuneration for work done during the voyage.

(6) If any question arises as to what return port a seafarer is to be sent in any case, or as to the route by which he should be sent, that question shall be decided by the officer aforesaid, and in deciding any question under this provision, that officer shall have regard both to the convenience of the seafarer and to the expenses involved and also, where that is the case, to the fact that a ship which is in want of seafarers to make up its complement is about to proceed to a proper return port or to a port in the vicinity thereof; but nothing in this rule shall relieve the owner from the obligation and expense of returning the seafarer to his proper return port.