Section 340

Where under this Act or under the Merchant Shipping Acts a ship is to be or may be detained, any commissioned officer on full pay in the Singapore Armed Forces or the Director, or the Surveyor-General, may detain the ship.

If the ship, after detention, or after service on the master of any notice of or order for detention, proceeds to sea before it is released by a competent authority, the master of the ship, and also the owner and any person who sends the ship to sea, if that owner or person is party or privy to the offence, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $2,000.

Any person hereby authorised to detain a ship may, if he thinks it necessary to do so, place a police guard on board.

Where a ship proceeding to sea takes to sea when on board thereof in the execution of his duty any officer authorised to detain the ship, or any police guard or any surveyor of ships under this Act, the owner and the master of the ship shall each be liable to pay all expenses of and incidental to the officer, police guard or surveyor being so taken to sea, and also to a fine not exceeding $2,000, or, if the offence is not prosecuted in a summary manner, not exceeding $200 for every day until the officer, police guard or surveyor returns or until such time as would enable him after leaving the ship to return to the port from which he is taken, and the expenses ordered to be paid may be recovered in the like manner as the fine.

Any police guard so placed on board a ship is hereby authorised to take such steps as are necessary to prevent the ship from leaving the port.

Any person who opposes or in any way obstructs any officer authorised to detain the ship, police guard or surveyor shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000.[377