Merchant Shipping (Salvage and Wreck) Act, 1993
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Interfering with wreck, etc. |
56.—(1) Subject to subsection (2), a person who boards or attempts to board any wrecked or stranded vessel without the permission of the master or owner of that vessel shall be guilty of an offence. | |
(2) Where a person is accused of an offence under subsection (1), it shall be a good defence to prove that the person was acting in any one of the following capacities, that is to say— | ||
(a) as the appropriate authority under section 51 or 52 , | ||
(b) as an authorised officer, an authorised person under section 26 of the Sea Pollution Act, 1991 , a receiver, a commissioned officer of the Defence Forces, a member of the Garda Síochána, an officer of Customs and Excise or a harbour-master, | ||
(c) as a person duly acting in the place of any person referred to in paragraph (b), | ||
(d) as a person acting by or under the command of any person referred to in paragraph (b) or (c), | ||
(e) as a person acting in an emergency situation where the master is not available to give permission to board, for the purpose of either or both— | ||
(i) saving the lives of shipwrecked persons, and | ||
(ii) saving the vessel or any part of its cargo or apparel from destruction and that the saving is not for the purpose of wrongfully carrying away or removing any part of its cargo or apparel: | ||
Provided that where any such person so acting, upon being requested by the master of the vessel concerned or by any person to whom paragraph (b), (c) or (d) of subsection (2) relates, refuses to leave the vessel as soon as is possible or to cease attempting to board the vessel it shall not be a good defence to prove that such person so acting is a person to whom paragraph (e) relates. | ||
(3) The master of a vessel may forcibly repel any person whom that master reasonably believes to be committing or attempting to commit an offence under subsection (1). | ||
(4) A person shall be guilty of an offence if, in relation to a wrecked or stranded vessel or other wreck, such person— | ||
(a) impedes or hinders or attempts to impede or hinder the saving thereof; | ||
(b) conceals any wreck; | ||
(c) obliterates any mark on wreck; | ||
(d) wrongfully carries away or removes any wreck; or | ||
(e) interferes with any wreck in any way. |