Offences relating to misconduct, to endangering ship and against persons on board.
Part VII Articles 190 to 191 of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 states as follows:
190:No master, seaman or apprentice belonging to an Indian ship wherever it may be, or to any other ship, while in India, shall knowingly -(a) do anything tending to the immediate loss or destruction of, or serious damage to, the ship, or tending immediately to endanger the life of, or to cause injury to any person belonging to or on board the ship; or(b) refuse or omit to do any lawful act proper and requisite to be done by him for preserving the ship from immediate loss, destruction or serious damage, or for preserving any person belonging to or on board the ship from danger to life or from injury.
191:(1) No seaman lawfully engaged and no apprentice -(a) shall desert his ship; or(b) shall neglect or refuse, without reasonable cause, to join the ship or to proceed to sea in his ship or be absent without leave at any time within twenty-four hours of the ship’s sailing from a port either at the commencement or during the progress of a voyage, or be absent at any time without leave and without sufficient reason from his ship or from his duty.
(2) For the purposes of sub-section (1), the fact that ship on which the seaman or apprentice is engaged or to which he belongs is unseaworthy shall be deemed to be a reasonable cause :Provided that the seaman or apprentice has, before failing or refusing to join his ship or to proceed to sea in his ship or before absenting himself or being absent from the ship, as the case may be, complained to the master or a shipping master, surveyor, seamen’s welfare office, port health officer, Indian consular officer or any other officer at any port duly authorised in this behalf by the Central Government, that the ship is unseaworthy.