1 The master of a ship at sea which is in a position
to be able to provide assistance, on receiving information from any
source that persons are in distress at sea, is bound to proceed with
all speed to their assistance, if possible informing them or the search
and rescue service that the ship is doing so. This obligation to provide
assistance applies regardless of the nationality or status of such
persons or the circumstances in which they are found. If the ship
receiving the distress alert is unable or, in the special circumstances
of the case, considers it unreasonable or unnecessary to proceed to
their assistance, the master must enter in the log-book the reason
for failing to proceed to the assistance of the persons in distress,
taking into account the recommendation of the Organization to inform
the appropriate search and rescue service accordingly.
1-1 Contracting Governments shall co-ordinate
and co-operate to ensure that masters of ships providing assistance
by embarking persons in distress at sea are released from their obligations
with minimum further deviation from the ships’ intended voyage,
provided that releasing the master of the ship from the obligations
under the current regulation does not further endanger the safety
of life at sea. The Contracting Government responsible for the search
and rescue region in which such assistance is rendered shall exercise
primary responsibility for ensuring such co-ordination and co-operation
occurs, so that survivors assisted are disembarked from the assisting
ship and delivered to a place of safety, taking into account the particular
circumstances of the case and guidelines developed by the Organizationfootnote. In these cases the relevant Contracting
Governments shall arrange for such disembarkation to be effected as
soon as reasonably practicable.
2 The master of a ship in distress or the search
and rescue service concerned, after consultation, so far as may be
possible, with the masters of ships which answer the distress alert,
has the right to requisition one or more of those ships as the master
of the ship in distress or the search and rescue service considers
best able to render assistance, and it shall be the duty of the master
or masters of the ship or ships requisitioned to comply with the requisition
by continuing to proceed with all speed to the assistance of persons
in distress.
3 Masters of ships shall be released from the
obligation imposed by paragraph 1 on learning that their ships have
not been requisitioned and that one or more other ships have been
requisitioned and are complying with the requisition. This decision
shall, if possible, be communicated to the other requisitioned ships
and to the search and rescue service.
4 The master of a ship shall be released from
the obligation imposed by paragraph 1 and, if his ship has been requisitioned,
from the obligation imposed by paragraph 2 on being informed by the
persons in distress or by the search and rescue service or by the
master of another ship which has reached such persons that assistance
is no longer necessary.
5 The provisions of this regulation do not prejudice
the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules of Law Relating
to Assistance and Salvage at Sea, signed at Brussels on 23 September
1910, particularly the obligation to render assistance imposed by
article 11 of that Convention.footnote
6 Masters of ships who have embarked persons in
distress at sea shall treat them with humanity, within the capabilities
and limitations of the ship.