Section 308: Submersion Load Lines

(1)
No ship shall be so loaded as to submerge in salt water when the ship has no list, the appropriate load line on each side of the ship, the load line indicating or purporting to indicate the maximum depth to which the ship is for the time being permitted under the Load Line Regulations to be loaded.
(2)
Where any ship is loaded in contravention of this section, the owner or master of the ship commits an offence and on conviction is liable to a fine not less than five hundred thousand Naira and to such additional fine, as specified in subsection (3) of this section, as the court thinks fit to impose having regard to the extent to which the earning capacity of the ship was, or would have been increased by reason of the submersion.
(3)
The additional fine referred to in subsection (2) of this section shall not exceed fifty thousand Naira for every centimetre or part thereof by which the appropriate load line on each side of the ship was submerged if the ship had been in salt water and without any list.
(4)
In any proceedings against an owner or master in respect of a contravention of this section, it shall be a valid defence that the contravention was due solely to deviation or delay caused by stress of weather or any cause of force majeure which neither the master, the owner, nor the charterer, if any, could have prevented or forestalled.
(5)
Without prejudice to any proceedings under this section, any ship which is loaded in contravention of this section may be detained until it ceases to be so loaded.