Merchant Shipping Act, 1951 (Act No. 57 of 1951)

Regulations

Merchant Shipping (Collision and Distress Signals) Regulations, 2005

5. Signals of distress
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(1) To avoid doubt, the provisions of this regulation that are applicable to vessels apply only to vessels referred to in regulation 4(2)(a).

 

(2) The signals declared, for the purposes of section 232(1)(a) of the Act, to be signals of distress are those described in Annex IV to the International Regulations.

 

(3) For the purposes of section 232(1)(a) of the Act—
(a) the prescribed purpose for which a signal of distress may be used or displayed by any vessel or person is to attract attention to, make known the position of, or obtain assistance in, a distress situation; and
(b) the prescribed circumstances in which a signal of distress may be used are—
(i) in the case of a vessel, when ordered by the vessel's master, which order may not be given unless the master is satisfied—
(aa) that the vessel is in serious and imminent danger, or that another vessel or an aircraft or person is in serious and imminent danger and cannot send that signal; and
(bb) that the vessel in danger (whether the master's own vessel or another vessel) or the aircraft or person in danger, as the case may be, requires immediate assistance in addition to any assistance then available; and
(ii) in the case of a person at a place on land in the Republic, when the person causing the signal of distress to be used or displayed is satisfied—
(aa) that he or she is in serious and imminent danger, or that a vessel or aircraft or another person is in serious and imminent danger and cannot send that signal; and
(bb) that he or she or the vessel, aircraft or other person in danger, as the case may be, requires immediate assistance in addition to any assistance then available.

 

(4) The master of a vessel that has used or displayed a signal of distress, and any person causing a signal of distress to be used or displayed at a place on land in the Republic, must cause the signal to be revoked by all appropriate means as soon as he or she is satisfied that the vessel or aircraft to which, or the person to whom, the signal relates is no longer in need of assistance.