Section 168: Recovery of wages of seaman with owner of ship

(1)
Where a seaman or cadet who belongs to a ship to which section 166 of this Act refers, is lost with the ship, the superintendent may recover the wages due to the seaman or cadet from the owner of thr ship in the same court and in the same manner in which the seaman's wages are recoverable and shall deal with the wages in the same manner as the wages of a deceased seaman and cadet are dealt with under this Part of this Act.
(2)
In any proceedings for the recovery of the wages of a seaman under this section, if it is shown by an official return produced out of the custody of the superintendent, or by other evidence, that a ship left the port of departure twelve months or more before the institution of the proceedings, the ship shall unless it is shown that it was heard of within twelve months after that departure, be deemed to have been lost with all hands on board immediately after the time at which the ship was last heard of or at such later time as the court hearing the case thinks probable.
(3)
Any duplicate agreement made out, or statement of change of the crew delivered, under this Part of this Act at the time of the last departure of the ship from Nigeria, or a certificate purporting to be a certificate from a consular or other public officer at any port outside Nigeria, stating that certain seamen and cadets were shipped in the ship from that port, shall, if produced out of the custody of the superintendent, be, in the absence of proof to the contrary, sufficient proof that the seamen and cadets named in the certificate as belonging to the ship were
on board at the time of the loss.