(1) Where grain is loaded on board any Saint Lucian ship, or is loaded at any port in Saint Lucia on any ship, all necessary and reasonable precautions shall be taken to prevent the grain from shifting; and, if such precautions are not taken, the owner or the master or any agent of the owner who was charged with the loading or with sending the ship to sea laden with the grain, commits an offence and the ship shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to be unsafe by reason of improper loading.
(2) Where any ship, loaded with grain outside Saint Lucia without necessary and reasonable precautions having been taken to prevent the grain from shifting, enters any port in Saint Lucia so laden, the owner or master commits an offence and the ship shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to be unsafe by reason of improper loading.
(3) An offence is not committed under subsection (2) where the ship would not have entered any such port but for stress of weather or any other cause or force majeure, which neither the master, the owner nor the charterer, if any, could have prevented or forestalled.
(4) Any person authorised by the Director to ensure the observance of the provisions of this section may inspect the grain, and the mode in which it is stowed and shall have all the powers of a surveyor of ships under this Act.