Penalty for submersion of load lines and sub division load lines
329. (1) If any ship is loaded in contravention of section 327 or section 328, the owner and master thereof shall, for each offence, be punishable with fine which may extend to twenty thousand Taka, and with such additional fine not exceeding the amount mentioned in sub section (2), as the Court thinks fit to impose having regard to the extent to which the earning capacity of the ship was, or would have been, increased by reason of the submersion:
Provided that it shall be a defence for a person charged with an offence under this sub section to prove that the contravention was due solely to deviation or delay was caused solely by stress of weather or other circumstances which neither the master nor the owner nor the charterer, if any, could have prevented or forestalled.
(2) The aforesaid additional fine shall not exceed ten thousand Taka for every inch or fraction of an inch by which the appropriate load line or sub-division load line, as the case may be, on each side of the ship was submerged, or would have been submerged if the ship had been in salt water and had no list.
(3) Without prejudice to any proceedings under the foregoing provisions of this section, any ship which is loaded in contravention of section 327 or section 328 may be detained until the ship ceases to be so loaded.