Section 123: Apropriate officer may require master of Nigerian ship to take seaman in distress

(1)
The appropriate officer may, in the case of any distressed seaman to whom any rules made or deemed to have been made pursuant to section 118 apply, require the master of any Nigerian ship:
(a)
to receive on board the distressed seamen or as the case may be the seamen or cadets to whom the request relates (in this section included in the expression "distressed seaman"); and
(b)
to afford a distressed seaman passage and maintenance so however that a master shall not be required to receive more than one distressed seaman for every five hundred tons of his ship's tonnage.
(2)
Where an appropriate officer requires the master of a ship to receive and afford a passage and maintenance to a distressed seaman the master of the ship shall endorse upon the agreement of the ship such particulars as are required by any rules made or deemed to have been made pursuant to section 118 of this Act or by the Minister.
(3)
The master of a Nigerian ship who, pursuant to subsection (1) of this section is required to receive and afford a passage and maintenance to any distressed seaman shall comply with the requirement and shall during the passage provide the distressed seaman with a proper berth or sleeping place, effectually protected against sea and weather.
(4)
A master of a ship who fails, without reasonable cause, to comply with the provisions of subsection (3) of this section commits an offence and on conviction is liable to a fine not less than one hundred thousand Naira.