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17 Rendering of Assistance to Persons in Distress at Sea


17.1 Objective


The objective of this Chapter is to identify applicable obligations on MASS and/or their operating personnel under international law to render assistance to persons in distress at sea and to prescribe the means by which any such duty might be effectively discharged. It should be stressed that this an area of MASS operation which will be the subject of considerable debate in the future. Feedback from operators will be an essential element of this debate.


17.2 Requirements of international law


17.2.1 Article 98 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982 (UNCLOS) requires flag States to enact laws to require the master of one of its flagged ships to render assistance to any person(s) found at sea in danger, insofar as it can be done without serious danger to the ship.


17.2.2 In particular, the Master, if informed of persons in distress, must proceed with all possible speed to the rescue of such persons insofar as such action may reasonably be expected of him.


17.2.3 The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974 as amended (SOLAS) prescribes the same obligation to contracting States in Regulation 33 of Chapter V (Navigation), adding that masters who have embarked persons in distress at sea should treat them with humanity, within the capabilities and limitations of the ship.


17.3 Applicability to MASS operations


17.3.1 The international State obligation of rendering assistance is to be practically discharged by the Master of a ship, rather than the ship itself. Therefore, the duty cannot lie with the MASS, but only potentially to persons operating it.


17.3.2 The State obligations will only find application to MASS operators to the extent that both:


n the MASS is itself a “ship”; and n an individual operator can be regarded as its “master” at the time of becoming aware of an incident.


17.3.3 A “master” under s.313 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 is the individual with “command or charge of a ship”. The Master for a MASS is as defined at Chapter 2 of this code.


17.4 MASS Remote controller task requirements


17.4.1 The duty to render assistance will fall to be discharged, if at all, by the MASS Master, potentially delegated to the controller, both as defined at Chapter 2 of this code.


Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships up to and including 24 metres in length 79


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